Tis the season for California lawmakers to travel the globe, some to seaside resorts teeming with unscrupulous lobbyists, at no expense themselves.
A hand-picked group of officials spent the past few weeks traveling — for free — to Hawaii, Vietnam and Taiwan to discuss big-picture policy ideas.
But these trips continue to be criticized as “junkets”, because they are funded and attended by special interest groups. Lawmakers were condemned when, during the COVID-19 pandemic, at least 10 lawmakers went to Maui, Hawaii, when travel was severely restricted.
“It doesn’t look good,” said Sean McMorris, a program manager at Common Cause, which raises questions about trips owned by special interest groups. He said that while there are “rules and parameters” to limit lobbying activities, it is “not easy” to monitor them. “You really take everyone’s word for it.”
Lobbying is more than “just talking to legislators about your policy goals,” he said. “It’s also about self-respect, creating passion and actually, to some degree, creating an implicit obligation that I’ve done something for you. It’s a kind of relationship building but, in politics, relationship building is more suspect.
This year, 12 officials traveled to Asia, including four state senators and five council members – most of whom sit on the energy and transportation committees – and three state administration officials including Fiona Ma, the state treasurer. Together, they traveled for three weeks to Taiwan and through northern and southern Vietnam, where they met with government officials, visited electric car factories and solar panel facilities and rode high-speed trains. He returned to California on Wednesday afternoon.
Another small group of lawmakers went to Maui for four days, starting last Monday, and stayed on the beach at the Fairmont Kea Lani Hotel, a luxury hotel in Wailea, where the average five-night room is about $4,000.
Dan Howle, executive director of the Independent Voters Project, a nonprofit organization that has hosted the Maui conference for 21 years, said they got a group discount that cut the cost in half.
They spent the morning on panels discussing topics ranging from health care, energy, technology and public safety. MPs are free to hang around all day and lounge by the pool with lobbyists.
“There’s a lot of hostility in Sacramento,” Howle said. “If we can get rid of the Capitol and act normally, there’s a tough road ahead in Sacramento.”
Financial supporters of the Maui event include a variety of special interests including health, technology and law enforcement. Some of the top donors from the past year include AT&T, the California Retailer Assn., Walmart, Pfizer and the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., according to available donor disclosure forms from the past three years.
Howle declined to say how many legislators attended the trip, or whether donors or lobbyists participated this year, but said the public disclosure form will be made public next April.
Howle added that anyone who lobbied was “not invited back.”
“Obviously, having this type of exposure and seeing these things … legislators will be better, more educated and able to make better decisions for their constituents,” said Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa), who was called out of the Legislature at the end months but had the opportunity to go to Asia after other members of parliament could not attend. “We tend to say we’re the fourth largest, the best economy in the world. But it’s a big world we live in.”
The goal, Dodd said, is “to see if other countries can move the needle.”
“Being in the Legislature is like drinking from a fire hose,” said Assemblywoman Lori Wilson (D-Suisun City) chair of the Transportation Committee and a member of the subcommittee on climate, energy and transportation.
Wilson said taking time away from the Capitol and talking about policy allowed him to slow down and have a more thoughtful discussion. “You need to have this deep conversation.”
Wilson said he hardly considers it a vacation and works from sun up to sun down. Legislators also attend Maui conferences in 2022 and 2023, according to financial disclosure forms. He opted out of this year’s conference to attend a trip to Asia.
“You do so much on these trips that they can be called junkets,” he said. “I didn’t know that people go on holidays by themselves. I got a lot from them. “
