Opinion: You should see their other cars.
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Only in California will the media critique carjack victims for poor fuel economy. Such was the Oakland Tribune‘s follow-up yesterday on Senate Pro Tem Don Perata’s recent run-in with crime:
When armed carjackers last month relieved state Senate Pro Tem Don Perata of his state-owned vehicle, it raised two eyebrows — one for the brash daylight crime on North Oakland streets, the other for the flash of Perata’s ride. While more lawmakers are going hybrid-green, the Capitol’s most powerful Democrat was rolling candy-apple red in a $38,600 Dodge Charger with 22-inch rims, yo. Turns out Perata was far from alone among state lawmakers — and not even in the top 10 — in his taste for gas-slurping automotive luxury at mostly taxpayer expense. More than half of senators who use state-leased cars opt for traditional gas vehicles that get 20 combined city/highway miles or less per gallon, according to a Bay Area News Group analysis of Senate data, using newly revised federal fuel economy ratings. The Assembly, which offers a lease break for members who go hybrid, fares greener. Nearly two- thirds of the 72 members with state-bought cars now drive hybrids.
The Los Angeles Daily News followed suit today, and included a handy list of California legislators and their rides. And incidentally, from the Reporter:
Those of you who have traveled under government contracts or had an expense account with a private businesses will love this: Legislators now get mileage (didn’t before) and a 30 percent increase in their per diem - yes, that’s right, both.
In an astounding correlation, Republican tastes tended toward lower fuel efficiency and higher price tags. Why study liberal and conservative brains at all when you’ve got their miles per gallon?
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, of course, is a prime example of the you-are-what-you-drive philosophy. He never denies his unabashed love of Hummers (‘I like to do everything big,’ he told TIME last June) and yet invested in the Tesla, a $100,000 electric car, which he seems to see as the wave of the future.
Fun as it is, judging politicians by their vehicles is little more than a frivolous exercise. Because really, given how many different signals a car can send about its driver, how many more ways can we parse this data? By region? Ethnicity? Affluence? Personality? Patriotism? Judgment?
In Perata’s case, anyway, it indicates recent experience. Again, from the Tribune:
It wasn’t cost or mileage that weighed most heavily when Perata chose a replacement car: A silver 2007 Ford Crown Victoria with 17,500 miles on it. It cost $18,646. It gets 18 mpg. ‘A gun was stuck in his face,’ said spokeswoman Alicia Trost said. ‘He wanted to drive a car that looked like a cop drove. That’s all he was thinking of.’