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A few days ago the Clean Money Elections bill, AB 583, died a quiet,
lonely death in a California State Senate committee. This bill would
have given candidates for public office a choice in financing their
campaigns: Do what they do now, which is solicit and accept large
donations from wealthy individuals and corporations or, they could
collect only small, individual donations and receive public
financing. More importantly, this bill would have given us voters a
choice too. We would have been able to vote for a Clean Money
representative able to vote his own conscious or for the usual, Pay to
Play politician.
The wonderful thing that happened a few days ago was not the demise of
the Clean Money Bill. No, that was awful. But the California Nurses
Association, anticipating the moral failure of our elected
representatives, sponsored a Clean Money initiative. 620,000
concerned California voters signed their petition and a few days ago,
Proposition 89, the “Clean Money and Fair Elections Act†qualified for
our November ballot. Regular Californians, you and I, will be able to
vote on this issue and, if it passes, no corporate shill will be able
to veto it.
The Clean Money and Fair Elections Act is no less than a Declaration
of Independence from our Monarchy of Money and the current version of
taxation without representation. It returns Democracy to the voters
who will have a clear choice on election day. We will be able to vote
for candidates who either spend their time begging for campaign money
from those who demand expensive favors in return or for those
candidates who do not.
As good as it sounds, Clean Money and Fair Elections has a huge battle
ahead of it. In last November’s Special Election, the pharmaceutical
industry spent $76 million to defeat a proposition that would have
given Californians cheaper prescription drugs. With so much money
spent on propaganda, it’s no wonder that we voted to shoot ourselves
in the foot. But the Clean Money and Fair Elections Act will cut the
influence of ALL corporations and wealthy individuals, not just one
industry. You can imagine the amount of money that will be pumped in,
from all around the country, to defeat this proposition. This fall,
as you hear the worst possible lies and distortions, constantly, and
from every medium, realize that if corporations invest tens of
millions of dollars to kill Clean Money, they must be reaping billions
in favors - at our expense - with Pay to Play.
The Clean Money and Fair Elections Act is a dividing line issue
between the extremely rich, who want politicians dependant upon their
big money donations and the rest of us who want our representatives to
be free from the influence peddlers. Always remember, Clean Money is
simply about having a choice on election day. As Americans, we
deserve nothing less.
