Why I Went to Work for Arianna

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Conservatives have attacked Davis (hypocritically) over the budget shortfall and the energy crisis. But progressives have our own reasons to shun him: He takes the prize as the king of corruption in California's shockingly corrupt politics.

A shameless "pay-to-play" politician, Davis shakes down his contributors and openly sells his support (and veto) to the highest bidder. He has helped turn the state government into a giant vending machine for big-money interests. And until he got into hot water, he was best known for shooting down progressive legislation and fanatically funding prisons.

Davis is a disgrace. And he is not alone in his party. Sure, the GOP is the primary home of the state's open racists, anti-gay bigots, and anti-abortion fanatics. But the California Democratic Party is overflowing with big polluters, profiteering incarcerators, and corporate power-abusers. In fact, those forces now dominate the Party. And Davis and Bustamante represent those forces, to the hilt.

Take, for example, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (the prison guard's union). It makes hefty campaign contributions to politicians willing to pass draconian laws. The tough laws require longer sentences, which require more prisons, which then require more guards, who then pay more union dues, which then buy more tough laws. And on it goes.

As a result, California's prison budget has exploded by more than 600 percent in the past 20 years. We are now the nation's number-one spender on prisons. In fact, we spend more on prisons than colleges.

Like you, I support organized labor. But the CCPOA isn't just defending its members. It actively twists laws to ensure that lots of human beings (mostly Black and Latino) are locked in cages. It profits by trafficking in human flesh, and gobbles up billions of dollars in the process.

So you would think that the "liberal" California Democrats and the CCPOA would be mortal enemies, right? Think again.

The CCPOA gave Democrat Davis $3.4 million in the past two election cycles. In exchange, Democrat Davis has given the guards three pay raises since 1998 -- including a gigantic 7.5 percent pay hike this year. That's right: in the same year in which a $38 billion deficit resulted in massive teacher layoffs and hospital closures, Democrat Davis gave the guards a $120 million pay raise. And by 2006, that pay hike will climb to 36 percent, costing an additional $700 million a year.

Further, Democrat Davis protected the incarceration industry from cuts, inflicting only a teeny 1.8 percent nick to the prison budget while slashing everything else.

Think the GOP would be even worse? Not in California. The GOP this summer actually proposed deeper cuts in the prison budget than Democrat Davis did. But the Democrats shot down the GOP proposals, sparing the jails while closing health clinics and gutting schools.

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