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"Honest graft", campaign finance reform style.

One hundred years ago, in 1905, NYC's Tammany Hall leader George Washington Plunkitt made the term "honest graft" famous -- pointing out that there was no reason for politicians such as himself to engage in illegal, dishonest graft, when it was so easy for them to get rich legally through honest graft. (Especially as the politicians themselves wrote the laws that determined what was legal and what wasn't).

On a completely unrelated note, New York City's politicians have created for themselves a campaign finance reform law that provides local candidates with four dollars of taxpayer money as a match to every one dollar they raise for themselves. Initially this match was provided only to those who declined large corporate contributions, as an "equalizer" -- but later such corporate contributions were banned altogether, so that justification disappeared. The four-to-one match for all remained.

The Post reports on one just one candidate's doings...

A leading Independence Party activist has opened a political consulting firm and collected more than $80,000 from the Independence Party's long-shot candidate for Manhattan borough president, The Post has learned.

Much of the money comes from taxpayers, since the candidate, Jessie Fields, has only raised $44,935, according to her Sept. 23 filing with the Campaign Finance Board. Under the generous 4-to-1 public matching funds program, Fields last week qualified for a $138,662 payment from the city for a campaign in which she has virtually no chance...

Records show that Fields shelled out $82,213 to Independent Options LLC, a company formed last May by Nancy Ross, a longtime Independence Party activist who has close ties to party mentor Lenora Fulani...

There's no law that would prevent Fields from hiring friends and associates to do campaign work as long as they're paid at market rates...

Civic watchdog Henry Stern, a honcho in the Liberal Party, said it might be time to review the entire campaign-finance system. "This is far from unique to the Independence Party," said Stern. "The whole campaign-finance system invites misuse and fraud. It's like a horse race you cannot lose and it pays off at 4 to 1." ...

This is Fields' second run for Manhattan borough president. In 2001 [she] received 6,654 votes — less than the candidate on the Marijuana Reform Party ... took $135,904 in matching funds [and] paid $47,736 to Independence Party members and affiliated groups... [ NY Post]

Get it? I could run for Manhattan Borough President on the Whig Restoration Party line, collect $20,000 in campaign contributions from my friends, plus another $80,000 from taxpayers, then pay my friends $50,000 for working on my campaign or renting it stuff, spend the other $50,000 on my campaign as I see fit -- and then, after getting fewer votes than either the Marijuana Reform Party or the Independence Party, we'd all walk away happy.

Every loser wins! All one has to do is run.

One just wonders if our politicians in Washington are driven by a different strand of DNA in their genes, so that their campaign finance reform laws are much more altruistic and less self-interested. Sure, must be. ;-)