You’ve probably heard about Oakland paying voters money they can then donate to candidates of their choice. The program, colloquially called Democracy Dollars (cute!) but formally known as the “Oakland Fair Elections Act,” was approved overwhelmingly by voters in 2022 as Measure W.
It’s intention (despite the “fair elections” moniker) was to elect more progressives to office by increasing the influence of flatlands voters over hills voters. The former demographic tends to be more radical than their wealthier, more moderate hills brethren. As one Oakland School Board candidate who supports the program put it, “We believe in an Oakland where there’s equitable democracy; where the flatlands have representation, and where Black, indigenous, people of color have the ability to run for office. And where corporations and privatizers are not strong-arming our political system.”
Measure W’s principle supporters on the City Council were Carroll Fife, Dan Kalb and Nikki Bas.
A total of $4,000,000 was granted by the City (through its Public Ethics Commission) to fund Democracy Dollars for the two-year budget cycle beginning in 2023. Vouchers for $100 worth of Democracy Dollars were to be mailed to every registered voter in Oakland to contribute to their candidate/s of choice.
But, as you might have expected, Democracy Dollars ran into speedbumps. Oakland’s massive budget crisis stalled the program, with the Public Ethics Commission announcing the new launch date will be 2026. Disappointed supporters of the program urged the city to conduct a pilot program this year (2024), possibly limited to a single City Council district, if it could not afford a citywide launch.
As of this writing, the situation remains in flux. A consortium of liberal groups, united in something called The Bay Area Political Equality Collaborative, has become a chief lobbyist in favor of Democracy Dollars, demanding “full funding” even though the money’s not there. The Collaborative’s most visible member is the leftwing group Bay Rising, which has a potent social media/online presence. Like all woke groups, Bay Rising uses the manipulative coded rhetoric of the far left. For example, “We need to enable our elected officials to do their jobs [and] connect with the most impacted folks…”. Who do they say are the most impacted folks? “…low-income and working-class immigrant, Black, Latinx, Asian, and Pacific Islander communities.”
But is it true that these groups are more impacted by city policies than White people, or higher-income people? I would argue, clearly not. We all need our garbage picked up, our roads to work, the electricity to run, our schools to function, firefighters and safe streets. Bay Rising also claims “Oaklanders deserve a local government that is transparent, accountable, and representative of all of us.” Are we then to infer that Bay Rising believes that the current Oakland government is not “transparent, accountable, and representative of all of us”? Then why not come out and say so, and tell us who’s doing the coverup? How will more voters from the flatlands increase the City Council’s “transparency and accountability”? I would argue it would not. In fact, if the welter of “social justice” groups in Oakland had any more power than they already do (which a stranglehold), we’d be in even worse shape, as more and more tax dollars would be siphoned off to the dubious, sketchy schemes for homelessness and anti-violence that have lately and finally come under media scrutiny.
Even liberal lawmakers are aghast at the absence of accountability for these wasted billions and billions of dollars. The truth is, increasing voting in the flatlands will do nothing to correct this. Nor is it intended to. The wokes do not want accountability or transparency when it comes to their programs. They like being given huge amounts of money that they can play around with as they please, in the darkness, with the public never knowing—and that is the real reason behind “Democracy Dollars”: to stuff Oakland government with ideologues like Carroll Fife and increase their arbitrary power.
Steve Heimoff