Democracy in America is threatened today. Increasingly, ordinary citizens have lost their influence over law-making and public policy, because candidates must raise huge sums to run for office, and because our elected representatives – often concerned about financing their next campaign – tend to follow the bidding of big donors rather than the true interests of voters in their district.
The result is that public policies bend to the wishes of corporations and special interests rather than what is truly best for humankind and our planet – on almost every issue governing the shape of our society and allocation of resources.
We need full public financing of elections – so that candidates who represent the people can afford to run, and so that once in office, elected representatives are not obligated to special interests and their lobbyists, for fear of losing campaign contributions. This won’t solve all of our problems, but it will go a long way to breaking the link between big donors and public officials and to restoring democracy to the people. This is fundamental to getting government “of, by, and for the people”!
This is not just a pipe dream. The states of Maine and Arizona have led the way, adopting public financing of election campaigns through citizen initiatives, in 1996 and 1998, respectively. Each year in those states, more candidates choose to run with what is called Clean Money, Clean Elections. Today, 83% of the Maine Senate and 77% of the Maine House were elected through clean elections!
Other states are following suit: In 2002, the North Carolina legislature became the 2nd in the country after Vermont, to adopt full public financing for judicial races. In 2003, New Mexico broke new ground, setting up a pilot program of clean elections for the state’s powerful Public Regulation Commission, the body that regulates corporations and utilities. In Connecticut, a program was established in law by the state legislature. In places, cities have acted – such as Portland, Oregon.
In places where clean elections are law, candidates are encouraged (as “Hostile Takeover” author David Sirota has written) “to run on their ideas, their convictions and their integrity instead of how effectively they can shake down the big money.”
We can do it here!
Washington Public Campaigns is organizing toward public financing of election campaigns in Washington state! To find out about our most recent activities, you can read our newsletter at www.washclean.org
For more details on how clean elections work, see Case for Clean Elections.
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