Ticketmaster’s troubled handling of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour prompted California lawmakers to spend months cracking down on the ticketing industry — while they enjoyed thousands of dollars worth of free tickets themselves from interest groups, a POLITICO analysis shows.
One assemblymember even appears to have accepted concert tickets to that very Swift tour, which prompted the effort to dismantle ticketing monopolies following backlash over Ticketmaster’s glitch-riddled sales rollout. She was later involved in legislative efforts to regulate the industry that ultimately stalled.
The findings are part of a wider POLITICO analysis of all 120 state lawmakers’ financial disclosures last year that found 66 state assemblymembers and senators received more than $30,000 total worth of tickets. The giveaways included entrance to Disneyland with mouse ears included, a music festival pass to see country music stars like Eric Church, and San Francisco 49ers seats. One of the biggest recipients of tickets to college sporting events also chairs the higher education committee.
I love how carefully the article steps around the central issue of who was doing the bribing. In context it seems likely it was Ticketmaster lobbyists, but the article would have you presume the tickets materialized from the ether and landed gently on a series of legislator desks.