Doris Haddock, a champion of campaign finance reform popularly known as "Granny D", has passed away at the age of 100.
According to Wikipedia, Granny D was born in New Hampshire and attended Emerson College in Boston. She was kicked out of college for getting married, but she was awarded an honorary degree in 2000. Later, "In 1960, Granny D began her political career when she and her husband successfully campaigned against planned hydrogen bomb nuclear testing in Alaska, saving an Inuit fishing village at Point Hope."
Starting in the 1990's, she became a prominent national voice for campaign finance reform. In 1999, she sought to gain attention for the issue by walking from Pasadena, California to Washington, DC, as commemorated in her book "Granny D: Walking Across America in My Ninetieth Year". Her eternally persistent attitude is also captured by the title of her memoir "Granny D: You're Never Too Old to Raise a Little Hell".
I really appreciate and identify with her political journey - in large part because I view campaign finance reform as an essential prerequisite to real progress on issues I care about like climate change and health reform (we've seen pretty clearly in recent months what happens when we try to get decent legislation out of a Congress that is tightly controlled by corporate money).
The recent Supreme Court decision by "activist judge" Roberts and his cronies only makes the need for reform more urgent, as Granny D addressed just a couple months ago. I would love to see the President and other leaders honor her passing publicly and call for new campaign finance reform legislation to be a centerpiece priority for the remainder of Obama's first term - it's a popular issue that Republicans are forced to take the wrong side of, and its success will enable much better legislation on other issues.
I encourage everyone to get involved at the state level, pushing for public campaign financing to level the financial playing field. Public Campaign is one national organization working for this goal. Above all, a fitting tribute to Granny D is just to keep working for the causes you believe in until the very day you die.