DEMOCRACY WORKS! 

The State of Clean Elections in West Virginia and Arizona

"The rich have every right to buy as many homes as they want, as many cars as they want, as many gizmos as they want, but they do not have the right to buy more democracy than the rest of us" – journalist Bill Moyers

So which would you prefer? Politicians whose campaigns are financed by special interests like the coal industry, big pharmaceutical companies, the timber industry and developers, or politicians who are financed through public funds, i.e. YOUR TAX DOLLARS? You the taxpayer would "own" public financed candidates. Since 2000, voter-owned elections – a rather freeing concept – have been working well in Maine and Arizona.

OK. I know that some of you are thinking to yourself, "What! No way do I want my tax dollars funding political campaigns! The system is riddled with corruption and no politician cares what I think about anything! Everyday I see my tax dollars going to support some other state boondoggle that largely benefits a few – generally, wealthy outsiders – while the infrastructure of this state is crumbling beneath overweight coal trucks and citizens are suffering from poverty, lack of health care insurance, and poor education. And NOW you want me to consider providing money to ELECT politicians who will probably just rip me off?"

The answer is YES, sort of. Yes to the first part – providing public funds for political campaigns. (No! to the part about politicians who rip off the public.) Consider who you know that might run for office if there were sufficient funds available – your next door neighbor, the bus driver, the nurse down the block, your Sunday school teacher, your Aunt Betty who’s full of good ideas, maybe even – you!

If you’ve lobbied the legislature in the past decade and paid attention to the kind of issues that get the most attention (like medical malpractice reform or overweight coal trucks), then you know that the issues receiving the most attention are the ones pushed by special interest contributors (influence peddlers). And generally, legislators pass bills that benefit their big campaign contributors.

Imagine what our state might look like if ordinary, interested citizens could run for political office or that our current politicians could be "freed from the bonds" of big special interests, freed to serve the greater public interest.

OVEC and Mountain State Research and Education Foundation (MSERF) teamed up to form the Peoples’ Election Reform Coalition-WV (PERC) in 1997. Through PERC, we track, analyze and publicize all special interests contributions (since the 1996 election cycle) to politicians’ campaigns. We can quantify what most people know in their hearts to be true – "him that pays the piper, calls the tune."

(To learn more about publicly funded elections, check out the campaign finance reform section on OVEC’s website)

Since Maine and Arizona have been through two election cycles using public financing, we know that this system can work here. Arizona listed these successes in 2002:

• Clean elections candidates won state’s top offices;

• Non-partisan: Republicans and Democrats benefited;

• Increased voter participation;

• Increased voter turnout;

• Increased voter choice;

• Increased competition;

• Decreased influence of big-money special interests;

• JProvided adequate funding for candidates;

• Strongly supported by the public.

Arizona is leading the nation in voter reform thanks to the successful passage and implementation of the Clean Elections Act passed by Arizona voters in 1998.   This act has led to more citizen participation in running for office and in voting.   For example, in 1998, 20 out of 30 state senate races were uncontested.   In 2002, with Clean Elections in place, only nine races were uncontested.

But, now there is an effort in the state to repeal this popular reform. A committee of Big-Money opponents of public financing in Arizona are gathering petition signatures to qualify a constitutional amendment for the 2004 ballot, to overturn the Clean Elections Act.  The committee’s first campaign finance report lists over $144,000 from special interests such as developers, technology moguls, insurance companies, political consultants and luxury homebuilders. Big-Money interests realize that Clean Elections has weakened their influence with politicians! They are going all out to overturn this public interest bill.

In response, a broad coalition of civic leaders and organizations called "Keep it Clean" has formed to defend the new system. If you want to help Keep Arizona Clean, please contribute $5 or more, and tell your friends as well (you can contribute from the donate portion of OVEC’s website).