Choice #1 - True Story

[Karyn Gill <KarynGill@aol.com>]

I'd like to relate a true story about the consequences of our present campaign finance/corruption system.

There is a wealthy developer who lives in northern California, who, for 25 years, has bought up cheap land and made a tidy profit on its development.  For years, he contributed to the campaign coffers of local politicians who allowed him, through local zoning laws, to develop his land. One day, the residents of Town "X" decided that the wealthy developer had made their streets so crowded and their schools so crowded with his building plans that they wanted his proposals stopped.  They voted out his political hacks and put in politicians who voted to stop the wealthy developer's proposals.  And so democracy worked.... until....
the wealthy developer contributed to the campaigns of several state legislators and the Governor.  They voted in a law that superseded the local zoning ordinance of Town "X" to allow the wealthy developer to continue his building proposals.

For those of you who believe that the wealthy have a "right" to make campaign contributions, how would you like to be a resident of Town "X"?

This is a true story (I could never make this up!), published in the California Journal, the premier political magazine in the state.