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Don't Let Them Crush Grassroots Democracy!
May 27 Meeting of Progressives
DON'T LET THEM CRUSH GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY!
To Help Clean Elections In WV, Please, Please Help Our Friends In AZ~ Central to OVEC's work to end mountain-range removal is our work to bring about real campaign finance reform in West Virginia. Once we get Big Coal's Big Money out of state politics, legislators won't be so blinded to the truth about this ecocidal coal mining practice.
After 7 years of work, we have had good success in advancing WV Clean Elections legislation. Now all our hard work is in jeopardy! We've been using the success stories about Clean Elections in Maine, Arizona, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Vermont to organize and to educate legislators. These states' victories over Big Money special interest in politics serve as concrete proof that Clean Elections will work here. Plus, if enough states adopt Clean Elections, real reforms will follow on the federal level.
But we know that Big Money will not give up its power without a fight. That's why it's not surprising to learn that wealthy special interests in Arizona, with deep ties to national pro-polluter, anti-environment interests, have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for a ballot initiative to gut Arizona's voter-approved historic Clean Elections Act.
Together we can stop them! Thousands of small donations can help beat back this big-donor funded attack on democracy. We are asking all OVEC supporters to help support our friends in Arizona with a $5 donation. We have set up a special page where OVEC supporters can securely donate on-line (or get info to send a donation via snail-mail). Please visit the OVEC page on their website and donate today. If you want to do more, check out how you can become a "friend raiser." Let's show our friends in Arizona that OVEC supporters are thankful for all they have done to advance Clean Elections.
In supporting Arizona, we are not just being kind. Our own fortunes on comprehensive public financing rise or fall on the Arizona ballot this year. Clean Elections reform found in Arizona and Maine has been called a "national model" and the "holy grail of campaign finance reform" because they allow ordinary people to run for office on a level playing field by providing a set amount of public money for candidates who take no big money from special interests.
That's exactly why the big developers, bankers, insurance companies, and corporate lobbyists in Arizona are all gunning to get rid of it. In other words, it reduces their power over our government.
In Arizona, nine of the 11 statewide elected officials, including the Governor and Attorney General, have been elected running without Big Money. So has more than a third of its state legislature. In Maine, the other state that has fully implemented Clean Elections, three-quarters of the State Senate and over half the State House is "clean."
No other reform has gone so far in freeing public officials from their dependence on Big Money from wealthy special interests than Clean Elections. Let's help Arizona defend this progress!
One more thing--Two of the Big-Money backers of the Arizona special interest power-grab are Bush Pioneers who have raised more than $100,000 for his campaign. They want to maintain the same corrupt system that has brought us a Medicare prescription drug bill tailored to the pharmaceutical, HMO, and insurance companies; the weakening of environmental rules for coal, oil and gas corporations; and huge tax breaks for corporations and wealthy individuals. Remember, Massey Energy director Buck Harless is also a Bush Pioneer. Fight back today! Please visit the OVEC page on their website and donate today.
GREAT TURNOUT AT PROTEST OUTSIDE MASSEY STOCKHOLDERS' MEETING
On May 18, about 100 people gathered outside the annual Massey Energy shareholders' meeting. We wanted to make certain the shareholders know that Massey Energy is reviled by many coalfield residents for its terrible environmental record and its union-busting activities. Many thanks to everyone who attended, and an extra special thanks to folks who, on May 15, helped make props for the protest. Check out the photos here and here.
MAY 27--CALLING ALL PROGRESSIVE ORGANIZATIONS AND CITIZENS
Meet-up on Thursday, May 27 at 7 p.m. in the meeting hall at Asbury United Methodist Church, 501 Elizabeth Street in Charleston's East End. Join an alliance of groups and activists who are committed to progressive, grassroots action. The success of base-building and organizing now in West Virginia will determine which future path our Nation will take. For more information, please contact Gary Fritz at 342-4848 or via email at seiuwv@verizon.net.
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