September - November 2000
BUYING BACK OUR
"DOLLAR DEMOCRACY"
"Clean Money" Candidates in State Elections Test Viability of Full Public Financing
"Show me the money!" Heading into the homestretch, candidates at all levels are clamoring for cash, raising and spending as never before. Aware of the influence it buys, wealthy special interests are all too eager to supply it. Reform legislation languishes in Congress while corporations and wealthy individuals overwhelm our campaign finance system. Average people are priced out of participating in politics as effectively as if they had to pay a poll tax before voting. The result is a political process that only deepens voter cynicism and widens the chasm between the rich and the rest of us.
Meanwhile, largely unnoticed by the media, citizens across the country have been organizing a dramatic new approach to campaign financing - full public financing, the "Clean Money" solution. While it doesn't attempt to match private money dollar for dollar, full public financing enables any qualifying candidate to run a competitive campaign unencumbered by ties to donors.
This year for the first time, some 200 candidates in 3 states -- Maine, Arizona and Vermont -- are running with full public financing. Voters are poised to enact similar initiatives this fall in Missouri and Oregon. Massachusetts' Clean Election system will take effect in 2002. Broad coalitions working in forty states, from Connecticut and New Mexico to North Carolina and Wisconsin, are close to passing public financing systems for their own state elections. Where federal efforts fail, the states have become the leading laboratories of experimentation and incubators of innovation.
Democrat Al Gore says he favors full public financing for general elections to Congress and Republican Sen. John McCain, co-sponsor of the leading reform legislation, says he is open to the idea. National leaders like Sen. Paul Wellstone and Rep. John Tierney have proposed a similar approach for Congress. Sen. Russell Feingold says full public financing is his ultimate goal.
Advocates contend that full public financing is the only comprehensive alternative to a system that is bankrupt, saying it will reduce the cost of campaigns, slow the money chase, and hold up under tough constitutional scrutiny. The concept has been endorsed by The New York Times, USA Today, The Boston Globe, and Newsday and is backed by two-thirds of the public in recent polls.
How will a Clean Money campaign finance system work in practice? How does it differ from other reform proposals? Even if it works in small states like Maine, will special interests prevent its passage at the national level?
Between September and November 2000, MMP conducted a major public education campaign on these issues. In all, we scheduled 266 radio and television interviews in 34 states. Of these, 48 were regionally, nationally or globally syndicated. Some 58 political leaders calling authorities were interviewed on such topics as political leaders calling for change, the current system and strategies for reform, and candidates running "clean."
Guest Speakers by Topic
Cash, Candidates, and Campaigns: The Current System and Strategies for Reform
Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins, President, League of Women Voters
Ellen Miller, President, Public Campaign
John Anderson, President, World Federalist Association, Former U.S. Representative, (D-IL)
Doris "Granny D" Haddock, 90-year Old Great-Grandmother who completed a 3,200 mile walk across America calling attention to the urgent need for campaign finance reform
Nick Nyhart, Executive Director, Public Campaign
William McNary, President, USAction; Co-Director, Citizen Action/Illinois
Dialing for Dollars: Candidates Shatter Fundraising Records
Larry Makinson, Executive Director, The Center for Responsive Politics
Samantha Sanchez, Co-Director, National Institute on Money in State Politics
Micah Sifry, Senior Analyst and acting Communications Director, Public Campaign
Court Challenges: The Constitutionality of the Current System and Reform Options
Jamin Raskin, Professor, Constitutional Law and Criminal Law and Procedure, American University
John Bonifaz, Executive Director, National Voting Rights Institute
Incubators of Innovation: States that Have Enacted Clean Money Reform
Maine
John Brautigam, Executive Director, Maine Citizen Leadership Fund
George Christie, Executive Director, Dirigo Alliance
Alison Smith, Co-Chair, Maine Citizens for Clean Elections; National Board Member, League of Women Voters
Arizona
Sharlene Bozack, Executive Director, Clean Elections Institute
Michael Valder, Co-Founder and President, Clean Elections Institute
Massachusetts
David Donnelly, Director, Mass Voters for Clean Elections
Janet Groat, Money and Politics Director, Northeast Action
Vermont
Dave Rapaport, Executive Director, Vermont Public Interest Research Group
Ballot Battles 2000: Missouri and Oregon Put Clean Money to the Voters
Missouri
Kathleen Logan, Political Director, Missouri Voters for Fair Elections
Harriett Woods, Former Missouri Senator and Lt. Governor; Past President, National Women's Political Caucus
Representative Joan Bray, State Representative, Missouri House of Representatives
Oregon
Maidi Terry, Campaign Manager, Oregon Political Accountability Campaign
John Dellenback, Former Republican Oregon state representative; former member, U.S. House of Representatives
Kicking the Habit: Former Insiders Cut the Ties that Buy
Ken Alhadeff, Chairman, Elttaes Enterprises
Arnold Hiatt, Chairman, Stride-Rite Foundation
Reform Pioneers Going Public: Candidates Running "Clean"
Senator Susan Longley, Incumbent Democratic Clean Election candidate for Maine Senate; Three-Term Chair, Senate Judiciary committee
Glenn Cummings, Democratic Clean Money Candidate for Maine House of Representatives
Jolene Lovejoy, Republican Clean Money Candidate for Maine House of Representatives
Jay Blanchard, Democratic Clean Money Candidate for Arizona Senate
Reforming from the Inside Out: Political Leaders Call for Change
U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN)
U.S. Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY)
U.S. Representative John Tierney (D-MA)
Miles Rapoport, Executive Director, Democracy Works
The Color of Money: Race, Poverty, and Campaign Contributions
Reverend Carrie Bolton, Field Organizer, Democracy South
Stephanie Wilson, Director, Fannie Lou Hamer Project
Randall Merritt, President, Fannie Lou Hamer Project; Vice President, USAction; Chair, Clean Elections Georgia
Juan Figueroa, President and General Counsel, Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund
Sonya Rosario, Lead Organizer, United Vision for Idaho
Reverend John Buehrens, President, Unitarian Universalist Association
Rabbi David Saperstein, President and General Counsel, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
