NEW YORK NEEDS FAIR ELECTIONS
[Letter from Dan Cantor, Executive Director, WFP, Posted October 11, 2012]
Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson famously pledged to spend as much as $100 million this year to beat President Obama. (It's a pretty smart bet for him, because Mitt Romney's tax plan would give him a $2 billion tax cut!)
And here in New York, real estate developers, gas drillers, Wall Street lobbyists and other corporate hot shots have figured out that big money can grease the wheels in Albany, and make politicians focus on their whims and desires -- not the needs of average voters.
We're backing the Fair Elections plan to take back our democracy. The plan would limit the influence of big money in politics with public financing of elections. And since Gov. Cuomo already supports the plan, it really has a chance. But we need your help to push it through the legislature.
Today, we're launching a new video featuring Law & Order and Newsroom star Sam Waterston, explaining how the plan works.
Click here to watch the video and sign our petition to our legislators in Albany to stop big money’s stranglehold on politics.
We don't have a super PAC to blanket the airwaves with this ad, so we're counting on you to spread the word. After you take action, please share the video with every New Yorker who wants to take our democracy back.
New York has some of the loosest campaign finance rules in America, with the highest contribution levels of any state that sets a limit. The result is a system where a few big contributors bankroll campaigns. That gives them an outsized role in calling the shots in Albany after Election Day, too – on everything from taxes to environmental protections to schools to the minimum wage.
The Fair Elections plan would change that, lowering contribution limits and implementing a system of public financing modeled after the successful system New York City already uses for local elections.
The plan sets up a system where small-dollar contributions leverage public matching funds. This allows candidates without a Rolodex full of lobbyists and wealthy friends to run for office and win. Under the new plan, instead of spending all their time dialing for dollars and attending lobbyist-backed fundraisers, politicians will have to listen to their constituents, even if those without tens of thousands of dollars to throw around.
New Yorkers deserve elected officials who are more responsive to the voters than to a handful of wealthy campaign donors. And passing this plan here will also be a major boost for the national movement to get big money out of Washington.
But we need your help to make sure politicians know we're paying attention. With November coming up, now's the time they're really worried about what we think. So it's time to speak out.
Sign our petition to our elected leaders in Albany to pass the Fair Elections plan right away.
http://salsa.wiredforchange.
Thanks for all you do,
- Dan Cantor
Executive Director, WFP
No comments:
Post a Comment