Assembly Bill 583 in California, the Clean Money, Fair Elections Act has changed into a pilot program making it cheaper, safer, slower to market. It will operate only on the Governor's race and one open Assembly seat and one open Senate seat.
The full Assembly vote for Clean Money AB 583 will be this Wednesday, June 6th. Californians should call their Assemblymembers.
Another Critical Aspect of the Pilot
One part of AB 583 is a big step: repealing Proposition 73 (1988), which is what got us into this mess in the first place. Prop 73 says no public funds for campaigns.
Prop 73 was the sneak attack bogus "campaign finance" proposition that only needed to beat the other one on the ballot (Proposition 68). Prop 73 won by more votes (both received more than 50% of the vote), so the strong campaign finance rules (with strong campaign limits, etc) of Prop 68 were ruled invalid. With most of Prop 73 eventually being ruled unconsititutional, it pretty much left just tne no public financing sabotage in, to ruin decent hopes of Clean Money till now...
Making AB583 a pilot program and repealing Prop 73 is the best possible combination. It is easier to put that in front of the voter: Smaller price tag, only a pilot, worth a try. It's a smarter and easier way to reach the goal. It will build momentum.
So, it is an important and critical first step, allowing the legislature later go go for full statewide Clean Money bill later without having to go to the voters again.
Everybody needs to call their Assemblymembers to ask them to support this bill and call Nunez to thank him for his support!
Write a Letter to Your Representatives @ www.CAclean.org
Schwarzenegger for Clean Money!
Money's influence over our political system is the "global warming" of our democracy. It's a looming catastrophe, so few are realizing the severity, and it will take significant work to change the way we're doing things.
Like Governor Schwarzenegger is trying to clean up our environment, this is his opportunity to clean up government. He said he wanted to "clean house". Clean Money in other states brings new faces, more women and minorities, more challenges to incumbencies. It's what he said he wanted.
I think Governor Schwarzenegger should be prepared to sign this into law and stand behind it for the vote because it's the true solution to the problems he ran his campaign on.
Why a pilot program? Here is a PDF.