Before the Deluge: We need Fair Elections now more than ever!

Just like the rest of the nation, California has long had a problem with its politicians being bought and paid for by the highest bidders, influencing and polluting everything they do in Sacramento. Generally the Republican politicians are owned by big corporations and the wealthy, while Democratic politicians are owned by the public employees’ unions – although there is bipartisan overlap, and they ALL respond “How high?” whenever the Prison Guards’ Union says “Jump!”

A lot of us Californians have been pushing for Fair Elections – constitutionally-defensible campaign finance reform – for a long time in this state, and we’ve never stopped.  But now, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, this struggle is more vital than ever, before the deluge of unrestricted corporate and Union cash bowls over whatever bit of democracy we’ve got left!  (Hey my union pals, chill – I’m writing for an Orange Juice audience, and anyway this is all true!)

Before we get any deeper in the weeds here, I need to invite you to two exciting events in the OC tomorrow (Saturday Jan. 30) :

North Orange County Campaign Kick-off, 1-3 PM
Walter D. Ehlers Community Recreation Center, Veterans Hall
8150 Knott Ave., Buena Park

AND
South Orange County Campaign Kick-off, 4-6 PM
Irvine United Congregational Church, Plumer Hall (the small dome)
4915 Alton Parkway, Irvine

Speakers will include popular progressive OC politicians Sharon Quirk-Silva and Rose Espinoza, as well as the great South Gate progressive Assemblyman Hector De La Torre who has been working so hard to stop the sale of our Fairgrounds.  And… (from the press release) you’ll get to hear directly from the Chair of Californians for Fair Elections, Trent Lange, about how the system works and how it responds to the corporate takeover that could result from the Supreme Court decision – by starting the process of getting politicians out of the fundraising game… Most importantly, find out how you can help bring Fair Elections to California – we’ll all need to work together to get it passed!

Okay, real quickly:  We would like to eventually see a system of public campaign financing as has been working well in states like Arizona and Maine, not to mention healthy democracies in other nations:  For example, a politician needs to start by getting several thousand $5 contributions from actual citizens who support them, and then they qualify for a certain amount of campaign financing.  At least to just level the playing field a little with their opponents who may have deep-pocketed supporters.

But in the current economic climate that’s a little too ambitious, so what we are pushing this year is a “pilot program,” self-financing, for the Secretary of State race.  It began as Assembly Bill 583 (Loni Hancock; passed overwhelmingly and signed by Arnold) which in order to take effect needs to be approved in a citizen’s initiative this year.  It provides for the campaign financing for the Secretary of State race to be covered by a fund paid for by fees from the army of professional lobbyists in Sacramento (several of whom told me that, even though they officially oppose it, they personally find it perfectly fair and reasonable.)  And we hope this will become so popular that it will lead to more similar reforms soon.  So come out Saturday and I’ll see you there!