What Happens Next?

Connecticut is having trouble fixing their public financing option. It has been a long process through a federal court case and appeals, yet still, Connecticut lawmakers are still trying to buy time to figure out how to fix their public financing mess. In was in August of last year, that the Federal Supreme Court ruled in favor of the ACLU (who worked on behalf of the Connecticut Green Party and the Connecticut Libertarian Party), who deemed that certain parts of the state's campaign public finance option was unconstitutional. The two minor parties stated that the public campaign finance option created increased difficulty for minor parties to able to participate under the option and that major, already-established parties, were able to easily participate, creating an unfair advantage.

Either way, this is going to be an interesting turn of events. It is no surprise that the minor parties have difficulty in participating in our election systems. It's not only the campaign finance that is the problem, but it is also the gerrymandering of districts, the winner-take-all election system, and countless other electoral barriers that prevents our electoral systems of being both representative and democratic. The system, through years of changes (such as eliminating fusion voting), is well established to only allow two-parties. Maybe the Green and Libertarian party should focus on eliminating those barriers as well.

Going against his own

Florida Governor Charlie Christ, a Republican, veteod a bill that would remove the law barring the long-since-dead fundraising machine called leadership funds. The article below has it all.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/07/1566713/florida-gov-charlie-crist-vetoes.html

Disclosure in Minnesota

Disclosure is now the only way to point out the connections between money and politics. There are groups like Citizens United who want to take their case further. Citizen United, for example, have asked the courts to not require disclosure or have a “media exemption.” The threat to removing disclosure is the next part of many groups who oppose campaign finance reform. As Minnesota's campaign finance laws are being challenged on the basis of Citizens United v FEC, the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board is recommending that corporations set up political funds and report what amount of funds are coming from the corporate treasury as well as outside donations. Disclosure is very important in following the effects of money on power. Without it we wouldn't be able to know who was paying for what commercial.

More can be found here: http://wcco.com/wireapnewsmn/Minn.campaign.officials.2.1614582.html

Wisconsin next to abolish their campaign finance laws...

Wisconsin is now challenging the consitionality of their campaign finance laws. The Government Accountability Board have suggested that the state lifts the ban on coporate and union donations. As mentioned in the blog below, this is the beginning of many states who will change their campaign finance laws to allow for coporate and union donations by the masses.

http://www.superiortelegram.com/event/article/id/40957/group/News/

Colorado Campaign Finance Laws Deemed Unconstitutional

When the Supreme Court made it's decision in Citizens United v. FEC, it would only be a matter of time before campaign finance laws would be challenged at the state-wide level. Well, The Colorado Supreme Court has knocked down the state's campaign finance laws citing the recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. I'm sure many more states will soon do the same.

More information can be found here:
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_14732136

R.I.P Granny D

Yes, Doris "Granny D" Haddock passed away this year on March 10. Granny D was a warrior for campaign finance reform and was a political activist till the day she passed. The folks at Democracy Now have put together a little remembrance video here:



For anyone who has never had a chance to listen to Granny D, check out this video:

A Taste Of The 2010 Season

Time Magazine put out a great article about how the health care fight in Washington, and the ads going along with it, are giving us a little taste of what's to come. Time reports that almost $200 million has been spent from both sides of the aisle trying to convince you what side to take. What's worst? Well, many of these advertisements have little to no disclosure at all. This means we don't even know who is trying to convince us to do what. Unless something changes, get used to it. So with that being said...

Welcome to the 2010 election season!

Check out the Time article at http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1972364,00.html?xid=rss-topstories