Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is facing backlash after promoting a city program that allows qualifying campaign contributions to be matched with public funds at a rate of 6-to-1.
In a video posted to X, Bass urged city residents to contribute to her reelection campaign while highlighting the taxpayer-funded match.
“If you live in the City of Los Angeles, your contribution will be matched 6:1 up to $257 per person under the LA City Matching Funds Program,” Bass’ ActBlue website said.
That means a qualifying $257 contribution from a Los Angeles resident could generate an additional $1,542 in public matching funds for the campaign.
Los Angeles has operated a public campaign financing system for decades. The city’s matching fund was created in 1990, and the city charter requires the money used for matching payments to come exclusively from city revenue.
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But the current 6-to-1 matching rate came much later.
In December 2018, the Los Angeles City Council approved changes allowing all qualified participating candidates to receive that match in both primary and general elections.
The change to the matching rate was approved by the City Council rather than through a citywide vote, which has drawn criticism from Angelenos who argue taxpayers should not be required to subsidize political candidates they may oppose.
Both Bass and mayoral challenger Nithya Raman are participating in the matching-funds program, while Spencer Pratt, who did not advance to the general election, opted out of the program and relied solely on private campaign contributions.
Los Angeles is one of several California cities that allow public financing of political campaigns. Long Beach, San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley also operate public campaign-financing programs.
The issue comes as California voters prepare to decide in November whether to repeal the state’s decades-old prohibition on public financing of political campaigns and allow local governments across the state to establish such programs.
Supporters of public campaign financing argue the programs can reduce candidates’ reliance on wealthy donors and special interests and give candidates with smaller donor bases a better chance of competing.
Bass’ promotion of the program has drawn criticism from Republican California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton, who called the match “obscene corruption” and said he would seek to outlaw such programs if elected governor.
The Daily Signal reached out to Bass’ campaign for comment on Hilton’s criticism and to ask if the mayor believes taxpayers should help finance campaigns for candidates they may not support, but the campaign did not return the request for comment.
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