Friends of democracy ~
Last week was filled with stunning victories for democracy in general,
and for public campaign financing specifically. Read on to find out
more and how we can really use your assistance at this crucial moment –
there's a lot happening!
Did you know that President-Elect Obama is
a co-sponsor of the
Fair Elections Now Act, which would provide the option of full public
financing for all congressional candidates? Not only that,
but he
has also signed a pledge to make passage of this bill a priority in his
administration! Even more exciting, is that his mentor in the Senate,
Richard Durbin, is the Democratic sponsor of the bill, which means we
may have some real wind in our sails.
Now it's our job to make sure it really happens.
As our allies at Common Cause are working in D.C to connect with
Obama's transition team, we have been tasked with helping get
Speaker Pelosi excited about this bill. Our grassroots efforts will
help motivate the Speaker to make this a priority, along with people
pushing from the D.C. side of things.
1. Who do you know that can influence Speaker
Pelosi? Can you set up a presentation
at a local organization sometime over the next 4-8 weeks (any local
organization)? I will be there. Are there
specific groups or individuals that you think Pelosi would listen to?
Let me know your thoughts!
2. Can you send an email to Speaker Pelosi
right now using our easy online tool?
http://www.commoncause.org/CA/Speaker-FairElections
Some of you may remember that we were working to get Dianne
Feinstein's support a few months ago. This has been tabled, as
Feinstein seems to be moving off of the committee that will hear this
issue.
On the local level, we now have a majority of the members of Board
of Supervisors who were elected using public financing, for the first
time ever! Even
better, 5 of the members who were elected have signed our pledge to not
raid the fund, and to support expansion to full public financing. Those
Supervisors are: Eric Mar*, David Chiu, Ross Mirkarimi, David Campos
and
John Avalos. Along with our allies who were not facing re-election, we
have a solid 6-vote majority! We are discussing plans for a ballot
initiative to protect and expand the local program and we will keep you
appraised of where that is shortly. In the mean time, we have to save
the country! : )
*Final election results pending.
Rob Arnow
--
San Franciscans for Voter Owned Elections
www.voterownedelections.org
415-552-2229