What would you do to remove the influence of lobbiests from our legislative system?
- Slated for the June 2010 ballot, there will be an initiative called the California Fair Elections Act that takes one step towards a more representative elections system. It applies just to the Sec. of State Office, but if we get one office free of pay-for-play politics, I'll take it. It sets up a voluntary system, where candidates can have their campaigns financed through a public fund, but the beauty of it is it is paid for by a fee on lobbiests! Getting the source of the problem to pay for the clean up is genius! As it stands now, lobbiests only pay $12.50 per year to be registered by the Sec. of State. Even beauticians and barbers pay twice as much. So by raising their fees to $350 per year, that fund goes into a pool for candidates to draw from in running for the Sec. of State office. If the candidates participate in this system, they are subject to strict spending limits, with real criminal penalties if they violate them. Basically, Californians can finally open up the election system and encourage people to run who are qualified and have good ideas, not the just the guy with the fattest wallet. It also means we'll be electing folks beholden to us the voters, rather than special interests. Woohoo!
- Find out more here: http://www.caclean.org/
