Opinion: Yes on Prop 4

Billionaires and corporate special interests are spending big to try to buy our elections. They know that if they write big enough checks, they can get access to influence politicians, so that they can write the laws that get passed. But those billionaires don’t care about the issues that affect my community: they don’t care about the price of gas, how expensive groceries have gotten or whether our kids get the support they need at school.

I work at Inner City Struggle in Boyle Heights, where we focus on strengthening our local schools, stopping housing displacement and increasing civic engagement. Every day I talk to families on the East Side about what they want from our elected leaders, and I hear the same recurring concerns: we want good quality schools to prepare our kids for the future, we want affordable housing that lets us stay in our communities and we want leaders who will tackle high prices. But things only seem to be getting worse. Rent prices keep rising, and every month I’m shocked at the grocery bill.

Our elected leaders, in too many cases, are too busy listening to their big donors to solve the real problems we deal with on a day to day basis. And running for office is nearly impossible unless you’re already rich, or you have rich donors to support you. The East Side has hundreds of nurses, teachers and community leaders who would make great public servants if they could afford the high cost of running for office.

Prop 4 helps to empower voters and small dollar donors by letting communities create public financing programs. Each city could design a program that works best for them, like a matching funds program that rewards candidates with a broad base of small dollar donors, or a voucher system like those used in Seattle or Oakland. Currently only a small number of charter cities like L.A., Berkeley, and San Francisco can run public financing programs. Prop 4 allows any community to design a system that allows every day Californians to have a say in electing their leaders.

Public financing ensures that candidates don’t have to spend all their time chasing big checks from wealthy donors, and instead lets them focus on the communities they hope to represent. It’s the best way to ensure that big donors don’t just steamroll the voice of the voters, and it helps candidates have the courage to run in tough races. Recently Zohran Mamdani faced down $41 million in Super PAC spending, but NYC’s robust public financing program helped him overcome the odds and win.

Prop 4 includes protections for taxpayers to make sure that money is used wisely: campaigns can’t spend it on legal defenses, fines or paying back loans. Any campaign has to meet strict eligibility requirements and agree to spending caps. And Prop 4 specifically prevents paying for public financing programs with money that is earmarked for education, transportation or public safety. 

If you’re worried about money in politics, Prop 4 is the first step in fighting back. Since 2020, over a billion dollars has been spent on California elections. It’s outrageous and it’s corrupting our democracy. It’s a big part of the reason why nothing seems to get done. Prop 4 lets you have a voice, because elections should be won, not bought.