Clean Money

This week, we held the 2nd in a series of Town Halls on Clean Money. The town hall this week was well attended and the panel was very informative. Kitty Felde moderated a discussion with Susan Lerner from the California Clean Money Campaign, Steve Levin from the Center for Governmental Studies, and Bill Boyarsky from the LA Ethics Commission. In addition to going over the history of campaign finance reform and the basics of Clean Money, the panel discussed the two breaking campaign finance news stories of the day:

1) The Supreme Court's Ruling on Vermont’s Campaign Spending Limits

2) Clean Money Ballot Initiative for State Elections Qualifies for the November Ballot


As I have blogged before, Clean Money is a public financing system that will help take money out of politics. Instead of politicians having to find money in the pockets of lobbyists and developers to run viable campaigns, they can instead choose to be publicly financed and therefore more likely beholden to the public. It is not a perfect system, but in Arizona, Maine, and Vermont voter participation has increased as have the diversity and number of candidates.

Bill strongly believes that if we can take the money out of politics, government will be given back to the people and much of the public’s lost trust in government can be restored. Thank you to all who attended and all who participated. This issue is gaining momentum and the more people who know about it, the more likely we can make elections and public policy the work of the people, as it should be.

For more information on Clean Money & Campaign Finance Reform, please visit one or more of the following websites: http://www.caclean.org/ (California Clean Money Campaign), http://www.cgs.org/ (Center for Governmental Studies), or http://www.ethics.lacity.org/ (Los Angeles Ethics Commission).

Have a great 4th of July!

- Aaron Gross
Deputy Chief of Staff