In Our Elections, Remove the Bias

With the November election approaching, discussion has turned to candidates not participating in debates and election forums hosted by groups that have endorsed beforehand. On the latter point, I’ve even questioned whether the independent local paper, charged with informing the community on key civic issues, should be partnering with the organization who has already endorsed its preferred candidates.

For context, this year, the Greater Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce, the primary voice of the business community within Thousand Oaks and the neighboring region, changed its stance on influencing local elections.

In a press release on the announcement, the Chamber’s executive board signaled its intent to be even more overtly political, as “most chambers of our size and accreditation status, not only endorse candidates, but have political action committees to provide financial support for endorsed candidates. By starting with a committee to endorse candidates it shows a commitment to consider this in the future,” taking it slowly and acting with caution. [1]

This shift is “a departure from the Chamber’s long-standing practice of limiting its support to ballot measures only.” [2]

Recently, the Chamber made their endorsements and has even scheduled an “Endorsed Chamber Candidates Mixer” for those candidates. All fine, but closer to the election, they are also co-hosting with the Thousand Oaks Acorn an informational forum for candidates in the race where they’ve already made their endorsements.

I mentioned that this “demonstrates a disappointing bias” and others have called on the Acorn to “go solo here.”

For our system of free and fair elections to work well, we should strive to remove any actual bias or appearance of bias, and let those that want to influence the outcome do so without trying to tilt things unnecessarily.

There is a valuable community interest in groups hosting debates for candidates.  

There is a valuable community interest in groups endorsing and supporting candidates for these offices. 

There is also an interest in candidates participating in these debates if they are intended to be informational for the community and helps candidates communicate their messages.

Let’s step back and take a view on what supports a healthier democratic process.

Influence or Inform - not both

If you want to hold a forum to inform the voting public about issues important to you, invite the candidates and ask them questions about those issues. However, you shouldn’t also endorse candidates in those same races.

Holding a forum is informational for the voting public.  Endorsing is intended to influence the voting public.  

Trying to do both is disrespectful at best and manipulative at worst; it insults the intelligence of the community.

And especially, if a group chooses to ignore this guidance and both hold a forum and endorse, the endorsement should never come before the forum.  It taints the process.

Taxpayer money or Influencing elections - not both

The slippery slope here is that any organization that receives taxpayer money to provide services should not endorse or back candidates who will vote yes or no on those very contracts.  

If organizations do want to support candidates officially, they should not receive public funding; they will get what they want by trying to elect people who will vote for favorable policies.

If they want taxpayer money to provide community services, negotiate with whomever the voters select to guide government policy; they should stay out of the endorsement business and stick with informing the public about and advocating for their issues.

With the Chamber’s shift to be more openly political, Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks recently called for a stop to funding the Chamber with tax dollars, noting that there will now be “council members making decisions with public tax money giving it to an entity who might endorse them.” [3]

Current Thousand Oaks Councilmember Ed Jones, running for re-election, shared the concerns, saying that “he would not be seeking the Chamber’s endorsement because he thinks it presents a conflict of interest due to the city’s annual contract with the Chamber to put on events like the State of the City address.” [4]

Bottom line: groups shouldn’t receive taxpayer money and attempt to influence the election for who approves those very contracts.  The conflict of interest is glaring and does not serve the public.

Good people rationalizing why it’s OK in this or that instance opens up further rationalizations down the road and is a path to corruption.

Candidates - participate in informational forums

The bargain that benefits the voting public: groups raise issues that they believe should be important to the voting public, and candidates have the opportunity to express their positions on these issues.

If invited, candidates should participate in forums hosted by groups that will agree not to endorse.  These groups have various issues that are of interest to them but agreeing not to endorse allows them to present their issues and have candidates respond to those issues to inform the voting public.

However, some forums may merely be held to highlight or embarrass certain candidates, turning the information forum into an influence forum.  

Groups who agree not to endorse should provide a fair environment to allow candidates’ views to be surfaced for the voting public.  In that bargain, candidates should then agree to participate and not feign a perception of unfairness to avoid answering tough questions on issues.

A side note: I am less concerned about independent news organizations hosting forums and then listing endorsements closer to election time.  There is a long tradition of the news organizations serving as informational sources for a community.  However, as news sources become more varied (e.g., niche news blogs, slanted monthly “journals”), the reputation of the news source matters in whether they can thread this needle.  If the independence and neutrality of a news organization fades, the rule for separating hosting a forum and endorsing should be more strictly scrutinized. 

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[1] Danielle Borja, Greater Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce press release, “Greater Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce Announces Formation of Endorsement Committee,” July 29, 2022.

[2] Becca Whitnall, “Chamber to make candidate endorsements,” Thousand Oaks Acorn, August 5, 2022.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Kyle Jorrey, “Conejo Chamber endorsements due out next week,” Thousand Oaks Acorn, September 9, 2022.