Imagine if most of our elected officials were elected without ANY special interest contribution/bribes -- that's the way it is already for state offices in Arizona and Maine, and that's how Democratic AZ Gov. Janet Napolitano was elected.
"Clean Money" public financing for election campaigns destroys the ROOT of political corruption: The need for constant fundraising for campaign cash. With "Clean Money," the "Pay to Play" game is OVER! In '06 campaigns, let's make it the Dems' answer to the "culture of corruption"!
But BOTH parties' elected officials in AZ back "Clean Money" because it frees them from constantly dialing for dollars! McCain supports it, too! And Howard Dean (he talked about it on Jay Leno a month ago).
There's an growing campaign to pass "Clean Money" in California -- check it out at
caclean.org There's a town meeting with Clean Money leaders in Oakland, CA Saturday Jan. 7, and hearings in the state legislature next week.
But we need "Clean Money" nationally because it's the ONLY way to ever drain the swamp of big $$ corruption in Congress and Presidential elections.
The widening Abramoff/Delay scandals present the biggest opportunity for election reform since Watergate. This is our chance to clean up Congress and Presidential campaigns once and for all. Let's make "Clean Money" the Democratic answer to corruption, make it the centerpiece of state and Congressional campaigns this year, and pass it into law in CA '06, nationally in '07-'08-'09!
And get this: Arizona's "Clean Money" law has campaign spending limits for the candidate who voluntarily accepts public financing, BUT if the opposing "dirty money" candidate spends more, the "Clean Money" candidate gets matching funds! So the "dirty money" candidate would only be helping his/her opponent by spending huge amounts -- so they DON'T! In AZ, total campaign spending has actually gone DOWN because of this since "Clean Money" took effect in '02.