This week the California Supreme Court threw Proposition 49 off the ballot, denying Californians the opportunity to advise Congress and their State legislators to overturn the US Supreme Court’s disastrous Citizens United decision. But this Thursday, something even worse could happen. In response to SEIU California and the California Teachers Association’s surprising opposition to SB 52, the California DISCLOSE Act*, California Democrats may actually kill this overwhelmingly popular bill.
Killing SB 52 would be an outrageous repudiation of everything the Democratic Party and its activists stand for. Hundreds of organizations endorse SB 52, and only 3 oppose it: SEIU CA, CTA, and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.
Thousands of activists – mostly Democrats and progressives -- have worked for nearly four years to pass the CA DISCLOSE Act, because until we can pass a constitutional amendment, the only hope for fighting back against unlimited secret money is shining a bright light on political ads. 84% of voters want this kind of disclosure. It’s actually in the California Democratic Party platform. Senator Mark Leno said it best after hundreds of Californians showed up in Sacramento to testify for SB 52 at the last two Assembly hearings: “This strikes at a very fundamental chord within all of us, that there is a real threat to the foundation of our democracy right now.”
And now, the real threat to the foundation of our democracy may be coming from Democrats.
If Democrats kill the DISCLOSE Act, how can they expect their base to keep supporting them? It makes no sense to keep working to elect Democrats if they won’t even pass something as fundamental to our values - in this era of Citizens United - as the DISCLOSE Act. The California Democratic Party has a historic decision to make here: Stand with the the activists and ordinary voters whose preference for transparency and disclosure is abundantly clear, or throw us all under the bus.
Toni Atkins, Assembly Speaker (916) 319-2078 / @toniatkins
Mike Gatto, Appropriations Committee chair (916) 319-2043 / @mikegatto
* The California DISCLOSE Act, modeled on the (defeated) 2010 Federal bill of the same name, would clearly disclose the top three original funders (not misleading committee names) on each ad, and also simplify and slow down the ridiculous garbledegook at the end of radio ads. The bill would also disclose the top five funders of a campaign in the ballot pamphlet; for more details go here.
[Crossposted from San Francisco for Democracy]