CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM
"Either the public buys the politicians or the special interests will." George Skelton, Los Angeles Times, 4/22/04
Campaign finance reform, our November meeting topic, will be a timely topic for the day after a special election called by the governor to promote his agenda through the initiative process when the legislative route was unsuccessful. This election will cost the people of California many millions of dollars, in addition to the hundreds of millions spent by the special interests promoting their agendas.
In the 2002 governor's race a record $130 million was spent ($78 million of it by Governor Gray Davis). Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger-after campaigning as a reformer who would cast special interests out of the Capitol-smashed every fund-raising record in his first year in office with a $26.6 million haul that doubled the amount raised by former Governor Gray Davis in his first year (San Francisco Chronicle, 11/17/2004). It is clear (at least to reform groups which include the League of Women Voters) that change in our election system is long overdue.
LWVUS President Kay Maxwell co-authored an article titled "Take Private Money Out Of Public Elections" (Hartford Courant, 10/4/2005) in which she said, "Connecticut has an extraordinary opportunity to clean up its elections and lead the nation in reform. Governor M. Jodi Rell has called a special legislative session, challenging legislators to show political leadership and pass campaign finance reforms that would do more than any reform law in the country to make voters count for more and checkbooks count for less. With corruption making headlines and so few opportunities for genuine change, Connecticut must not miss this chance for a clean start with clean elections."
In publicly financed elections ("clean elections") voters own the campaigns. Clean elections level the playing field by putting constituents in a stronger position to hold their elected officials accountable for their actions. Special access, previously granted to the well-heeled lobbying interests, is taken out of the equation.
Clean elections are working well in Arizona and Maine. Vermont, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and New Mexico have passed versions of similar public financing systems." In the next two years New Jersey and Portland, Oregon, will put similar public financing systems to work. While elements of the plans vary according to local circumstances, in general, participating candidates receive Clean Money for the primary and general elections and they qualify by raising a high number of small (e.g., $5) qualifying contributions from voters in their districts or states. In clean elections states elections have become more about voters and less about raising money. New people are running, offering an array of voices and opinions that were shut out when the system ran exclusively with private funding.
California also has such an opportunity with Assembly Bill 583, The California Clean Money and Fair Elections Act introduced by Assemblywoman Loni Hancock (D-East Bay). Join us at our November 9 luncheon meeting to learn more about clean money in our state.
--Government Director, LWVMP
