Lucky you, Massachusetts! Texas billionaire John Arnold is going to save democracy in the Bay State! Unfortunately he is helping to destroy democracy in the process.
That is the upshot of today’s outstanding Matt Stout story in The Boston Globe, Who Are The Out-of-State Billionaires Backing Ranked Choice Voting in Massachusetts?
According to the story John and Laura Arnold “have committed nearly $3.4 million in support of the Massachusetts ballot proposal.” John Arnold’s money comes from stints at Enron and his own hedge fund operation. The Arnolds are in for $3.4 million, so far. Second biggest backer is Rupert Murdoch’s daughter Kathryn with nearly $3 million. No ill-gotten gains here. The largest in-state contributor, Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter, kicked in $450,000.
And at least Porter was willing to speak to Stout for the record. Maybe economically successful people have some good ideas? If so, they should speak up so democracy can hold them accountable. But, “Neither the Arnolds nor Murdoch agreed to interview requests sent through the respective organizations they lead, which instead offered on-the-record statements.”
So here are two out-of-state billionaires, spending wildly to fundamentally change the workings of democracy in a state neither lives in, and they wont deign to answer questions? The arrogance is simply unbelievable.
Arnold made his money in fossil fuels. Murdoch inherited her money from an enterprise that has played a marquee role in destroying American democracy. These are the people who are supposed to save democracy?
Here’s another reason Stout’s piece is so good. He reminds readers that Arnold gave $250,000 to Question 2 of 2016, to increase charter schools in Massachusetts. (He gave to Great Schools Massachusetts, the ballot committee for Families for Excellent Schools. There were few families. It was a hedge fund front). His Patients for Affordable Drugs Super Pac put $510,000 totally unnecessary dollars behind Governor Baker’s re-election. Then the Patients SuperPAC spent hundreds of thousands on an ad campaign backing Baker’s proposal on prescription drug costs. (There are no patients). I’ve written this before myself, recently in One of #MaPoli’s Biggest Influencers is John Arnold of Texas.
Here’s the part I absolutely love, because it shows how oligarchs like Arnold set the public policy agenda. In order to pump up RCV, the Arnolds fund a “think tank” called New America which researches RCV and publishes that research. And in his piece, Stout quotes assistant teaching professor Jack Santucci from Drexel University who says that this money issue is a big nothing because there is all kinds of money in politics and money doesn’t really matter. But then read down and we find out that the professor is on the payroll of New America, where he researches RCV!
I asked myself, Can I think of a single credible political scientist who would say that money in a ballot campaign makes no difference? And my answer is no–not unless the professor is on John Arnold’s payroll. Which Santucci is.
The opposition to the RCV ballot question comes from the right wing dark money front Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance. MFA is the puppet for Charles Koch in a lawsuit to undermine the governor’s public health measures. Just as coronavirus is spiking again.
Do we want democracy, or do we want John Arnold, Katrhyn Murdoch, and Charles Koch spending unlimited sums on “what’s good for us”? That isn’t democracy, it’s oligarchy.
You can’t save democracy by destroying democracy.
We must make our choice. We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” – Louis Brandeis
[Full disclosure: as an educator in the UMass system, I am a union member. I write about dark money, democracy, and oligarchy.]
{Full disclosure: Stout reports that sixteen percent of RCV donations come from in-state. My wife is one of those donors. RCV chairman Evan Falchuk is a good friend.]