AB 583, the California Clean Money and Fair Elections Act, has a new funding source to pay for full public financing for Secretary of State campaigns – a $350 annual registration fee on lobbyists, lobbying firms, and lobbyist employers. As you might suppose, the lobbyists are up in arms at the idea of having to pay the same fee they pay in Illinois – not to mention losing access to elected officials they can’t donate to because they’re using Clean Money instead of private money - and are coming out to fight it.
Let’s not let them stop Clean Money! The Senate Appropriations Committee hearing is in room 4203 in the state capitol building on Monday morning at 10:00am, and it’s huge. We’ve got to pack the hearing room with people power to stop the lobbyists from killing it. Carpools of Clean Money supporters from all parts of the Bay Area all the way down to Orange County are driving up, but we need even more.
If there’s any chance you can come, please join us! Send an email to info@caclean.org to tell us you’re coming or to be hooked up with a carpool.
Can’t make it? Send a fax!
If you can’t make it, use the California Clean Money Campaign’s online letter-writing tool to send a free fax to Appropriations Chair Tom Torlakson, Senate President pro Tem Don Perata, and other targets. The more faxes they get this week, the better!
www.CAclean.org/letters
This is the closest a Clean Money bill has ever made it to getting through both houses of the legislature in California, and AB 583 makes the perfect pilot project by funding Secretary of State races to make sure they never have to take money from the likes of Diebold or other private contributors. So let’s make it happen!
California Clean Money Campaign
www.CAclean.org