It’s Not Your Mom’s League of Women Voters

Many think of the League of Women Voters as an unbiased source of voter information. But, in the Bay Area at least, nothing could be further from the truth. LWV Bay Area has received funding from local transit agencies and is earning that support by campaigning on behalf of their $17 billion transit sales tax.

Nationally, LWV represents itself as “a nonpartisan, grassroots nonprofit dedicated to empowering everyone to fully participate in our democracy. [W]e engage in advocacy, education, litigation, and organizing to protect every American’s freedom to vote.”

But in the Bay Area, LWV signed a contract with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission in 2018, under which MTC, BART, AC Transit, and other agencies paid it up to $75,000 to continue publishing its bi-monthly newsletter, Bay Area Monitor.

The Monitor, which no longer appears to be publishing, ran a favorable story on transit-oriented development (TOD) while the contract was in force. Other articles addressed regional planning and climate change, popular topics for sponsoring agencies.

While MTC and its partner agencies no longer fund the Monitor, LWV Bay Area remains closely aligned. This month, ballot guides reaching mailboxes in all five Measure RTM counties featured arguments for the tax signed by “League of Women Voters Bay Area, Louise Rothman-Reimer, Co-President”.

It is unfortunate that an organization with a century-long legacy of promoting itself as a neutral arbiter for political debate would take sides on an important debate about the Bay Area’s future.