The Feld-Blog

Where does corruption come from? Well... In the United States, campaigning for office is incredibly expensive and if you're a politician and you don't get elected, you're out of a job. This leaves a gap for lobbyists and special interests to sneak in. If they can bankroll a politicians campaign, that government official can't risk offending his donors, or he will be out of a job come election time, with no money to campaign to get re-elected.

The situation is even worse in state and local elections. It is much harder to raise funds for lower office, but oftentimes, national companies will pour money into an opposition candidate in order to oust and incumbent. This makes state legislators, governors and mayors even more susceptible to the wiles of interest groups and lobbyists.

So how do we save ourselves from this trap? Well in the long run, public funding of campaigns (as occurs in many other countries) could easily mitigate the problems we experience today. Until then, Candidates who can finance their own campaigns, though often eccentric, hold the promise of uncorrupt government. When people like Steve Westly (running for California governor) can back their own campains, it is a good sign they won't be in the pockets of the interest groups (or at least not as much as other candidates.

Steve Westly is now independently wealthy from his time as an eBay executive. He has poured millions of dollars of his own money into his campaign instead of soliciting money from oil companies, unions or other special interests. As such, he will be less susceptible to such political forces once in office. Furthermore, the friends and allies he made while working at eBay position him ideally to govern California and its huge tech industry.

As we begin to scratch the surface of the pervasive culture of corruption seeping into every corner of our government, we must turn to those we know can weather the political storm - those who aren't taking huge contributions for the corporations and interest groups that are hurting honest public policy around the nation.