Clean Elections - Saving WV From Future Scandals

Remember the highly embarrassing scandal surrounding Masseys CEO Don Blankenship spending $3 million to elect Brent Benjamin to the WV Supreme Court?

The way to keep money and its influence out of our Supreme Court and other judicial elections is by adopting public campaign financing. When special interests pay for our judges election campaigns, how can we expect judges to remain completely impartial?

But when the public pays the bills, the candidates are accountable only to the law and to the public.

Governor Manchins recently appointed Judicial Elections Commission has begun its work. Several public hearings on a variety of issues have been scheduled: campaign financing, judicial selection, and a mid-level appellate court.

Our longtime ally for clean elections, Senator Jeffrey Kessler, will be addressing the commission on the topic of public financing.

With citizen support, it is certainly possible that a public financing program could be one of the recommendations of the commission when it reports to the governor on November 15.

WV Citizens for Clean Elections, which OVEC leads, will be participating in the hearings and watching the outcomes closely and would certainly rally itself to strongly support resulting public campaign financing legislation.

The Clean Elections coalition plans to continue its support of the public financing bill for the WV Senate and House of Delegates members as well.

There are a good number of loyal legislators who are in favor of a public campaign financing option, but we are still seeking a champion who will make it a top priority to move the bill forward.

The Clean Elections bill at the federal level, the Fair Elections Now Act (FENA), recently received a favorable hearing in the Committee on House Administration. Co-sponsors are still signing on, so please contact your Senators and Representative to support S752/HR1826. Imagine our congressional delegation free of the influence of special-interest campaign contributions!

Dont forget to check the Citizens for Clean Elections website (www.wvoter-owned.org) for updates.