California's Clean Money and Fair Elections Act
A few days ago, something wonderful happened...
A few days ago the Clean Money Elections bill, AB 583, died a quiet, lonely death in a California State Senate committee. This bill would have given candidates for public office a choice in financing their campaigns: Do what they do now, which is solicit and accept large donations from wealthy individuals and corporations or, they could collect only small, individual donations and receive public financing. More importantly, this bill would have given us voters a choice too. We would have been able to vote for a Clean Money representative able to vote his own conscience or for the usual, Pay to Play politician.
The wonderful thing that happened a few days ago was not the demise of the Clean Money Bill. No, that was awful. But the California Nurses Association, anticipating the moral failure of our elected representatives, sponsored a Clean Money initiative. 620,000 concerned California voters signed their petition and a few days ago, Proposition 89, the "Clean Money and Fair Elections Act" qualified for our November ballot. Regular Californians, you and I, will be able to vote on this issue and, if it passes, no corporate shill will be able to veto it.
The Clean Money and Fair Elections Act is no less than a Declaration of Independence from our Monarchy of Money and the current version of taxation without representation. It returns Democracy to the voters who will have a clear choice on election day. We will be able to vote for candidates who either spend their time begging for campaign money from those who demand expensive favors in return or for those candidates who do not.
As good as it sounds, Clean Money and Fair Elections has a huge battle ahead of it. In last November's Special Election, the pharmaceutical industry spent $76 million to defeat a proposition that would have given Californians cheaper prescription drugs. With so much money spent on propaganda, it's no wonder that we voted to shoot ourselves in the foot. But the Clean Money and Fair Elections Act will cut the influence of ALL corporations and wealthy individuals, not just one industry. You can imagine the amount of money that will be pumped in, from all around the country, to defeat this proposition. This fall, as you hear the worst possible lies and distortions, constantly, and from every medium, realize that if corporations invest tens of millions of dollars to kill Clean Money, they must be reaping billions in favors - at our expense - with Pay to Play.
The Clean Money and Fair Elections Act is a dividing line issue between the extremely rich, who want politicians dependant upon their big money donations and the rest of us who want our representatives to be free from the influence peddlers. Always remember, Clean Money is simply about having a choice on election day. As Americans, we deserve nothing less.
Mike Kirchubel
mikirch@comcast.net
Fairfield, CA
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