An Actual Corporation Is Running for L.A. Mayor

By Simone Wilson Fri., Apr. 6 2012 at 11:00 AM

~db~ via Flickr

We'll see about that.

We've all seen the Occupy Wall Street signs: America for sale! End corporate personhood! Get the money out of politics!

But what if a corporation actually became a politician?

Farmscape LLC, which describes itself as "the largest urban farming venture in Los Angeles," is launching a full-fledged mayoral campaign...

... for the 2013 municipal election, reports KCRW. The company seems to think (or is really good at pretending they think) that under the Supreme Court's two-year-old "corporations are people" ruling, an LLC is just as eligible as, say, Eric Garcetti, to vie for a seat at City Hall.

And this uncoventional pol has personality, too. "You're here because you know that bland food comes from bland politics," reads the Farmscape campaign website. "You wish there were a candidate to represent our chard values."

Seriously?

Farmscape spokeswoman Rachel Ballin tells KCRW, "We are very serious about running for mayor because we are curious and want to discover what the limits to the corporate person-hood ruling might be."

OK, we'll bite. LA Weekly called a top California elections lawyer, Jim Sutton, to get his take on the feasibility of the campaign.

Could this work? "Oh, god no," says Sutton.

He says the Supreme Court's corporate-personhood ruling is very often made out to be more than it is. "It didn't say corporations are people," says Sutton. Instead, it simply allowed corporations to be considered people "for the purposes of communicating with the public" during an election. Aka, through campaign donations or endorsements.

Plus, running for office has less to with a single Supreme Court ruling and more to do with the California Constitution and elections code. Individuals who run for office must be U.S. citizens over 18 years of age, along with other human-centric requirements.

"I would recommend that this company re-read the California Constitution," says Sutton.

Buzzkill! But yeah, now that we got that out of the way, we can focus on the amusing -- even sort of genius -- efforts of Farmscape to point out the follies of current L.A. City Hall people and policies. And get some free press, to boot.

In the end, their "corporate" message is really quite the opposite. They use it more as a tool to point out the terrible job that humans are doing of running Los Angeles. (Due, in large part, to corporate ties. Ironic!)

From the campaign announcement:

"Why run for Mayor? From City Hall, Farmscape will be able to wield greater influence and reach out to people to guide a movement to ReFarm the city. With control of the city's land and resources and the pulpit of the Mayor's Office, Farmscape could quickly convert more landscaping to farmscaping and accelerate the end of our city's dependence on foreign soil."

Farmscape vows to KCRW that if all else fails, they'll "wage a write-in campaign."

Let's just hope this "corporate personhood" legal guise doesn't, by some miracle, actually make it through the board of elections, and end up backfiring as a victory for the 1 percent. At that point, Farmscape, expect Occupiers with pitchforks all up in your tomato beds.

In actual news, did you know that Los Angeles city politicians (the skin-and-bones variety) just upped the amount of campaign money they can receive from corporations and unions? Smack dab in the middle of an election season, no less?

Well, they did. So that sucks.

[@simone_electra / swilson@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

Tags:

corporate greed, corporations, Election 2013, Farmscape, mayor's race

We Recommend

Apples

Isn't there an age requirement to run?

Yjdraiman

Los Angeles Economic Development – YJ Draiman It is time to remake Los Angeles in the image of our boldest vision – a city of healthy communities with good schools and quality education, innovative companies in new and emerging sectors, quality open space, improved public transportation, a range of mobility and housing options; and above all, a prosperous and productive middle class equipped with the skills and education to create a better future. It is time to get serious about designing a real economic development program linked to investments in healthy communities. I recently proposed to make Los Angeles the World Capital of Renewable Energy, Energy and Water Efficiency. We have the climate, the manpower, the resources and technology. We must promote energy and water efficiency in all sectors of LA’s economy. This by itself can save the city billions and bring many jobs and economic growth into Los Angeles. We should promote real estate gentrification, affordable housing, urban infill building, economic development and clean tech sorted through the parts of redevelopment worth retaining and retooling combined with some newer elements of economic development necessary to realize this vision of healthy communities. In the past five years many businesses in LA have closed down or moved out. There are many vacant properties (commercial and residential). Many people have moved out of LA. They can not afford the cost of living, the high taxation, the stifling bureaucracy and varied rules and regulations that choke business development. We have a dysfunctional leadership in Los Angeles, an inefficient workforce, a demand for entitlement, and crippling budget deficits that are creating an environment of uncertainty for many companies who want to hire people, but are afraid to do so. Capital is stagnant and unattainable, frozen by an over swing of regulation and bureaucracy. We want to get Los Angeles working again, yet many of our wounds are self inflicted, as LA bureaucrats go to work every day piling more regulations and taxes onto the very businesses we ask to grow and create more jobs. This situation must change, or we are doomed. It is imperative that we reverse this trend. YJ Draiman http://www.yjdraimanformayor.c...

SZwartz

OK let a corporation try to run for mayor, but Farmscape is not a corporation. It is an LLC which means "Limited Liability Company." Incorporate and then run.

Dan

Ironically, a corporation might spend less time obsessing about raising money than most candidates: http://www.thisamericanlife.or...

Alberto

I think Farmscape has a case, Mr. Sutton. Justice Steven's in fact agrees that corporations can't run for office, but unfortunately he's on the bottom of a 5-4. The dissent can tell us a lot about the majority opinion that is on the books:

...The conceit that corporations must be treated identically to natural persons in the political sphere is not only inaccurate but also inadequate to justify the Court’s disposition of this case.

In the context of election to public office, the distinction between corporate and human speakers is significant. Although they make enormous contributions to our society, corporations are not actually members of it. They cannot vote or run for office. Because they may be managed and controlled by nonresidents, their interests may conflict in fundamental respects with the interests of eligible voters. The financial resources, legal structure, and instrumental orientation of corporations raise legitimate concerns about their role in the electoral process. Our lawmakers have a compelling constitutional basis, if not also a democratic duty, to take measures designed to guard against the potentially deleterious effects of corporate spending in local and national races.http://www.democraticundergrou...