Clean Money and Politics

By Sara Nichols, Letter to the Editor

Re "Democrats' flood failure," editorial, April 27: The Bee got it right in tracing the dollars from the banking industry to the members of the Assembly banking committee. But it should add the solution: the California Clean Money bill, AB 583 (Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley). The Clean Money bill would create a publicly financed system of elections, which would allow candidates for state offices to run "clean," taking no money from special interests, and instead collecting a set number of signatures and $5 contributions from people in their districts to qualify for public elections funds.

One little-known attribute of the current system is that legislators who represent districts with large numbers of low-income people and very few frequent voters tend to look outside the district for campaign funding. There's precious little of it in their districts. As a result, legislators from these districts often become overly beholden to wealthy special interests.

AB 583, up for a vote May 3 in the Senate Elections Committee, needs the votes of Sens. Kevin Murray (D-Los Angeles) and Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), who represent precisely such districts. Let's hope they recognize the liberating power of public financing of elections and vote to pass the bill.

Sara Nichols, Sacramento

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