“I hope we shall… crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and to bid defiance to the laws of our country.”
~Thomas Jefferson-November 12, 1816

92% of Americans believe special interest contributors BUY VOTES!  Gallup Poll 1995.

Now is our chance to change this with a “yes” vote on Proposition 15, which creates a pilot program for voluntary public financing for Secretary of State candidates in 2014 and 2018.  Prop. 15, the California Fair Elections Act will appear on the June 8, 2010 ballot. It imposes strict reporting requirements and prohibitions on campaign spending for participating candidates.  It bans participating candidates from raising money from lobbyists, their clients, or anyone else.  Voluntary state tax contributions and registration fees on lobbyists, lobbying firms, and lobbyist employers will pay for the funding of qualified candidates.  The registration fees will be raised from $12.50 per year to $350.  It ensures that only candidates who show broad support and agree to strict spending limits would receive funding.  It would be enough to run competitive campaigns.  ”Clean  Election” laws work and have been adopted in seven other states and two cities.  If you want to see that money from special interests no longer shuts out the rest of us, then please join the 130 people who met at the Camarillo Library on Sunday March 14th.  It may seem that Prop. 15 would pass easily, but the Institute for Government Advocates, a lobbyist trade group, not surprisingly, is opposing it.

“It is money, money, money!  Not ideas, not principles, but money that reigns supreme in American politics.”
~Senator Robert C. Byrd, West Virginia

Let’s get money out of our campaigns and go to WWW.YesFairElections.org <http://www.YesFairElections.org>  to volunteer and/or contribute financially.

Sandee Bates, Eco Dems Chair