CALIFORNIA, USA — Lobbyist Samantha Corbin wants to hold the powerful accountable when it comes to sexual misconduct. As a working woman in the political arena, she said she's experienced her fair share of inappropriate behavior.
She helped create "WeSaidEnough" in 2017 after the news about Harvey Weinstein broke.
"We started having a conversation internally, a number of women working in California politics, that this was something that was not just unique to Hollywood," Corbin said.
Within a few days, she helped write a letter signed by 150 other women who experienced sexual misconduct in the political world which was published in the LA Times.
WeSaidEnough helped pass legislation that makes the California Capitol safer, but she said it's just the start. She's now received messages from thousands of women and men across the state with similar stories.
"Many of them actually were reaching out years after they had left the profession, because they just couldn't take the environment anymore," Corbin said. "We continue to assist victims and survivors as they need help kind of navigating the process."
Corbin says the legislature did create a Workplace Conduct Unit, but said the big flaw in the system is that it's managed by itself, the legislature.
"Those who we seek to hold accountable probably shouldn't be directly responsible for controlling the accountability process," she said. "And that's what I would hope that people would take away from this, that we really need independent oversight.”
She wants oversight to be on a broader level too, saying the Unit does not encompass the larger political community that she is a part of.
"So as a lobbyist, I really can't access the Workplace Conduct Unit, even if I was harassed by a legislator, and certainly not if I was harassed by another lobbyist," Corbin said. "It also doesn't encompass state agencies, constitutional offices, and local governments.”
So how does she accomplish her goal?
"If the legislature isn't willing to expand and to look at doing something that is bigger than itself, outside of itself, then there may be a need for a ballot initiative so that voters can take that action on their own," Corbin said.
Ballot initiatives are not easy though. They require a lot of time, money, and signatures.
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