Fair And Clean Elections Could Change the FACE of WV Politics

Fair And Clean Elections in West Virginia. That sure would be welcome relief in the midst of this election season, where there’s enough mud being slung to keep all the hogs in our nation knee-deep and happy.

While Fair And Clean Elections in West Virginia may not put a lid on all the lies and half-truths inundating our public airways, it does have the capacity to allow candidates to run on the merits of their ideas and not on how much cash they can beg for from special interests. It could level the playing field and limit spending.

Costs for campaigns are skyrocketing. In West Virginia, according to the People’s Election Reform Coalition (PERC-WV), some state Senate races in 2002 topped out over $400,000 (a state Senator is paid $15,000). In our gubernatorial 2004 primaries, candidates raised over $9 million, and the race to the finish isn’t over yet! Most of this money isn’t coming from regular citizens. According to PERC-WV, less than ½ of 1 percent of all West Virginians contribute to campaigns. Special interests who benefit financially are the primary contributors to our politicians’ campaigns. My mom always told me, "You get what you pay for." Well, unfortunately, special interests are "buying" and West Virginians are paying.

In some cases, some West Virginians are paying with their lives. Just ask a family member of anyone who died after being killed by an overweight coal truck. Our lawmakers’ "solution" to that serious problem was NOT to enforce the law on the books, but to raise the weight limits. It’s no small coincidence that campaign contributions from the coal industry, trucking companies and other coal supporters to those who voted in favor of the increase, far exceeded those who voted against raising the limits.

While many politicians swear they are not swayed by campaign contributions, only the most politically naive believes he/she is not influenced in some manner (especially if there are plans to milk the same campaign cash cow when the next election cycle rolls around).

In the very least, wealthy contributors generally have no trouble getting access to our lawmakers – not a small thing. Nevertheless, the potential for corruption, real or perceived, is great.

And so, from one campaign season to the next, the money chase is on. Candidates spend inordinate amounts of time raising dough for campaigns from special interests (unless they are independently wealthy).

Frankly, considering all the serious issues affecting people’s very lives here – spiraling costs of health care and prescription drugs, a deteriorating environment due to mountaintop removal, deforestation and repeated flooding, poor air quality that triggers many respiratory ailments especially in children and the elderly, mercury contamination of our state’s water so bad that pregnant women are advised to restrict their (and their children’s) consumption of fish, thousands of West Virginians without good paying jobs, retirement benefits going down the drain, consolidation of rural schools forcing too many children to endure long bus rides (to name a few major issues) – wouldn’t citizens prefer lawmakers spend their time focusing on finding solutions to these kinds of problems instead of always dialing for campaign dollars?

Honestly, candidates are faced with a tough choice under our current system for financing campaigns. Either a candidate spends time raising money from special interests, or he/she faces the possibility of not having enough money to run a viable campaign. The candidate is caught up in a very flawed system. But there is a solution that could free politicians from the bonds of special interest campaign contributions. It’s a voluntary system already working in Maine, Arizona, Vermont, North Carolina and New Mexico where candidates can choose to run clean.

How might the face of West Virginia politics change if we instituted a system of public financing fashioned after the laws enacted in Maine and Arizona?

Fair and Clean Elections could provide money for people from all walks of life who have won the public trust, to run for office and get elected. In Arizona, more women and people of color have been elected to public office. In a healthy democracy, the views at the statehouse should reflect the many differing views of the people that are represented.

Indeed, you do "get what you pay for." Maybe West Virginians would get more beneficial laws IF they helped pay for the campaigns. One expert on elections, reminding us that elections are supposed to be for the public good, has said that the small amount of money the public would spend to finance elections, relative to the current spending in a state’s budget, is wholly justifiable because of the potential public benefit.

Fair And Clean Elections holds the potential to change the way elected officials campaign.

At the same time it is changing the way our lawmakers ultimately conduct business at the statehouse.

Many people now believe it’s time to change the FACE (Fair And Clean Elections) of politics in West Virginia.

About 900,000 people are represented by the organizations involved in the Citizens for Clean Elections, a broad-based nonpartisan coalition comprised of environmental, labor, faith-based, community and good government groups.