Commission wants to alter laws governing slate mailers
Supporters of the Santa Monica living wage asked state and local officials on Friday to investigate the campaign tactics of their opposition.
They claim the group that campaigned against the living wage last November deliberately misled voters using so-called “slate mailers,” thereby defeating the measure by a mere 1.7 percent.
The mailers incorrectly inferred that the Democratic Party, women favoring abortion rights, education activists and some candidates for office all opposed the living wage. It also indicated with an asterisk that a campaign favoring a school tax that was also on the ballot and advertised on the mailer helped pay for them.
However, November 2002 filings with the California Secretary of State’s office revealed the anti-living wage campaign was the only group who paid for the mailers. The group maintains that a third party paid for the advertisement with a small contribution that fell below the state’s disclosure requirement.
While it may be deceptive, it’s unclear whether it’s illegal.
That’s why a special commission was formed earlier this year to investigate the campaign.
“I’ve never seen anything quite so deceptive,” said Xandra Kayden, co-chair of the Santa Monica Living Wage Commission of Inquiry, at a Friday press conference that attracted about 50 people.
The self-appointed commission, which is made up of politicians, academics and community leaders, lodged formal complaints with the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office and the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission on Friday asking that the groups responsible for the mailers be investigated for election law violations.
Slate mailers are created by for-profit companies that sell space on the fliers to candidates and causes as an inexpensive way to reach potential voters. As a result, mailers can often be a hodgepodge of groups and candidates that sometimes may have conflicting platforms or agendas.
Opponents of the measure said Friday they doubt the district attorney will pursue the investigation.
“You see this sort of thing all the time,” said Tom Larmore, a local attorney who worked on the “No on JJ” campaign. “When you lose an election you often times think that the other side didn’t play fair. But at some point you just have to move on.”
Fighting Against Irresponsible Regulation spent more than $2 million fighting the living wage.
Santa Monica’s living wage would have required businesses near the coast that generate more than $5 million a year in revenue to pay all employees between $10.50 and $12.25 an hour, depending on whether workers receive health benefits.
The commission is pushing for a reform on how these kinds of mailers are created. Commission members said the reforms will be geared toward penalizing companies that send intentionally deceptive slate mail, as well as educating the electorate.
One of the mailers the “No on JJ” group paid $14,000 to appear on was titled a “Pro-Choice Voters Guide,” which featured a headline that read, “Santa Monica’s Pro-Choice Leaders Agree: No on Measure JJ.”
FAIR paid another $13,000 to appear on the “Quality Schools Coalition” mailer, in which another headline read “For Our Schools, For Our Children, For Our Future.”
Finally, the group paid $12,000 to appear on the “Democratic Voters Ballot Guide,” which pictured Congressman Henry Waxman and State Assemblywoman Fran Pavley over a line that read, “Important Santa Monica Issues For Women, Our Young & Our Poor.”
The content of the mailers appears to indicate that FAIR was supported by these Democrats and left-leaning organizations, when in fact most of those parties supported the living wage.
Commission members said Friday they don’t expect the legal action to be anything more than a slap on the wrist for James Lacy, whose company created the three mailings in question. Lacy has reportedly netted millions as a designer of slate mailers.
The commission does hope, however, to change the laws that govern slate mailers before the living wage goes back on the ballot in 2004.
They plan to ask the Santa Monica City Council on July 8 to form an ethics committee and require the city clerk in Santa Monica to publish within 24 hours all contributions to slate mailers. They also will ask that information about the laws governing slate mailers be printed in the ballot book.
Kayden said the current laws don’t do enough to protect voters, who assume the causes on a mailer are connected.
“There’s no law against lying,” said Kayden, who added that courts traditionally have frowned upon limiting any election-related dissemination of information. “It’s an unfortunate truth, but unless you lie under oath, there’s no law against it.”
Several politicians — including Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom and Councilman Kevin McKeown — spoke in favor of the commission’s actions at Friday’s press conference, which was held on the beach boardwalk between Casa Del Mar and Shutters on the Beach, two hotels that would have been affected by the living wage.
“We’re going to close the shutters on these types of activities in California,” former State Sen. Art Torres said. “Santa Monica (is going) after these greedy peddlers of mistruths.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 28, 2003. Read the original PDF.