California Common Cause Endorses Prop 89
By Christina Lokke
Posted on Wed Jul 26, 2006 at 05:47:02 PM EST
Californians have a second chance of seeing public financing of state elections becoming a reality in the November election.
Prop 89, the Clean Money and Fair Elections Act, creates a voluntary system of public financing and limits political contributions to candidates and ballot measures. It will ensure that people with true grassroots support will be able to mount credible campaigns without having to rely on wealthy special interests to bankroll - and buy - their political platforms.
State public financing has already proven to be successful in both Maine and Arizona and we are working hard to add California to that list. Check out our Prop 89 webpage for more information. LA moves towards Clean Money
By Theis Finlev
Posted on Fri Jul 07, 2006 at 03:32:07 PM EST
On Wednesday, the Los Angeles city council took a step closer to adopting full-public financing for municipal campaigns. Although five of the council members expressed the usual concerns about tax-dollars for campaigns, the full 15-member council voted unanimously to draft a measure that could be placed on the March ballot. Check out the LA Times story. Reflecting the unimpeachable tidiness of the current members, the city council also voted to change the name from Clean Money to "full-public financing". I still think "voter-owned elections" best captures the intent and philosophy of public-finance. A successful drive for public-finance in the second most populous city in the nation would obviously be a huge boon for the movement.
Show Me the Clean Money
By Theis Finlev
Posted on Wed Apr 26, 2006 at 05:58:08 PM EST
Californians overwhelmingly feel that their Capitol is run by special interests. However, given the tenor of last week's committee hearing on the California Clean Money Bill, modeled on the Arizona and Maine public-finance laws, it seems that Californians will have to get used to it.
Opponents of the Clean Money (AB 583) bill found various details to attach their criticism to at the April 19 Senate Elections Committee hearing. Several senators spent a great deal of time predicting how the system would be gamed by politicians, in spite of contrary testimony that such hypothetical situations simply had not occurred in states where Clean Money has already been adopted. While acknowledging the valid problem of privately-funded independent expenditures in a publicly-financed campaign, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that these senators simply don't support reforming the current system that emphasizes wealthy contributors at the expense of the vast majority of Californians who feel that their voices are not heard in the Capitol.
The bill still needs to be voted on by that committee. But, after the hearing, it seems only great pressure from leadership will force these reluctant senators to see the light. Senate President Don Perata has been telling the hundreds of California Common Cause members who have been calling his and other senators' offices that he supports the bill. If he truly does, hopefully he can help these two termed-out Democrats on the committee get out of the way.
Money
By Mike Surrusco
Posted on Tue Mar 28, 2006 at 08:43:37 AM EST
One of the reforms Common Cause has long advocated for is public financing. The idea is that members of Congress and the administration would no longer have to spend so much time asking people for money and could spend more time doing the business of the country. For example: Here's a look at the March fundraising by Bush and Cheney:
March 6 (Cheney): Event for Collier County (Fla.) party
March 6 (Cheney): Event for Rep. Clay Shaw (R-Fla.)
March 9 (Bush): Event for Georgia state GOP
March 13 (Cheney): Event for Wisconsin 8th district candidate John Gard
March 13 (Cheney): Event for Wisconsin GOP's coordinated campaign
March 13 (Cheney): Event for Illinois 6th district candidate Peter Roskam
March 16 (Bush): National Republican Congressional Committee dinner
March 17 (Cheney): Event for South Carolina 5th district candidate Ralph Norman
March 20 (Cheney): Event for Ohio 6th district candidate Chuck Blasdel
March 20 (Cheney): Event for New Jersey Senate candidate Tom Kean Jr.
March 23 (Cheney): Event for Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl
March 24 (Bush): Event for Indiana GOP's coordinated campaign
March 24 (Bush): Event for Indiana Rep. Mike Sodrel
March 24 (Bush): Event for Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum
March 24 (Bush): Event for Pennsylvania GOP's coordinated campaign
March 24 (Cheney): Event for Florida Rep. Ric Keller
March 24 (Cheney): National Republican Congressional Committee dinner
March 27 (Bush): Event for Montana Sen. Conrad Burns
March 27 (Bush): Event for Montana GOP's coordinated campaign
NY Campaign Spending
By Ed Davis
Posted on Tue Mar 21, 2006 at 08:48:19 AM EST
Rachel Leon, director of Common Cause New York, yesterday wrote an op-ed in the NY Times describing the findings of a new report on campaign spending in the state and telling New York State to "follow the lead" of Connecticut and New York City and adopt public financing of campaigns, citing the high cost of running for public office in the state: When candidates feel pressure to raise large sums of money to be competitive, wealthy individuals and other corporate and special interest groups grow in influence and importance while the rest of us are pushed ever more into the sidelines of our democracy. Here's more of Rachel's piece: Foul-play in Portland? Are these people serious?
By Dave Algoso
Posted on Fri Feb 17, 2006 at 09:25:36 AM EST
It's official: the effort to repeal Portland's Voter-Owned Elections law failed to make it on the ballot. In addition to a high number of invalid signatures, the corporate-backed "First Things First" committee suffered from an incredibly high number of duplicate signatures.
And here's their response: Big money may not be enough in Portland, Oregon
By Dave Algoso
Posted on Tue Feb 14, 2006 at 09:06:39 AM EST
Last year, Portland's city council passed the first municipal Voter-Owned Elections law. The city's big corporate players responded by spending almost $350K collecting petition signatures in an attempt to place a repeal before voters on the May 06 ballot. The supporters of the repeal effort make up a who's who of Portland corporate interests: Portland Business Alliance, Qwest, Portland General Electric, Comcast, etc.
And it now looks like they've failed! Laboratories of democracy
By Dave Algoso
Posted on Tue Feb 07, 2006 at 10:35:28 PM EST
In response to headline-grabbing ethics scandals, lawmakers took a good hard look at how they could open up government, change the way lobbyists do business, and create an independent ethics commission to enforce the new laws. The resulting bill is being widely hailed as a move of real legislative leadership.
But I'm not talking about Congress. No, this bill was passed Monday by the Tennessee legislature. That's good for Tennesseeans, but it's too bad for the rest of us that the good ol' boys in Washington, D.C., haven't taken their cue yet.
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