ICCI Voter Owned Lobby Day in Des Moines

By Caroline Vernon

Progressive Action for the Common Good (PACG) has reserved a passenger van to transport Quad City activists to Des Moines next Monday, January 29th. We will be joining other progressive activists across Iowa in order to lobby our state legislators on the importance of clean elections and public financing of campaigns. Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (ICCI) is the main organizer of this event and has already laid a lot of groundwork around this issue. This is a price-less (pun intended) opportunity to make a difference in the fight to reclaim our democracy.

We will leave from the NE corner of the Northpark Mall parking lot (near Sears) at 8:00am. This van seats 12. We have 6 open seats available and will be stopping at the Perkins restaturant in Iowa City to pick up a couple more folks so if you live in the QC area or in Iowa City and would like to join us, please contact Caroline ASAP to reserve a seat: 563-676-7580, carolina1961@gmail.com. Others from the QC area will also be carpooling to Des Moines.

Please wear a green shirt (representing money) and if possible, bring a dozen or more home-made cookies along. Currently, lobbyists are allowed to spend a maximum of $2.99 on each legislator so we would like to bring home-made cookies to share, to represent home-made elections. If you are willing to contribute goodies for the cause please let me know. If you are unable to attend, but would be willing to bake some cookies, that would be terrific! Finally, to help defray some of the cost of renting the bus, we are asking for a $10 donation from each participant.

CCI is expecting an estimated turnout of close to 150 activists from around the state. I am hopeful that we can fill the remaining seats in the van. We expect to have a bill number to lobby around by next week.

Iowans shouldn't have to wonder.

Tell your legislators to support Voter Owned Iowa Clean Elections!

The Clean Elections Act will help restore fairness to our elections by allowing everyday Iowans the opportunity to run for office, regardless of how much money they can access.  Voters won't have to wonder if large contributors are gaining unbalanced access to OUR representatives.

The Clean Elections Act would provide a limited amount of public financing for candidates who:

Pledge to not raise any private money for their campaigns.
Pledge to not use any of their own money for their campaigns.
Collect a set number of signatures and $5 contributions from within their own district to prove they are viable.

It Can Work!
Maine and Arizona have been effectively using the system for four election cycles and the results have been good for democracy.
More people are running for office.
More people are turning out to vote.
Candidates report spending more time talking to voters.
9 of 11 statewide officeholders in Arizona, including the Governor and Attorney General, have been elected without taking money from PACs and big money contributors, spending only a fraction of what is used in conventional races like Iowa's.


We Need it Now!
Voter-Owned Elections help ensure a healthy democracy by:

Freeing candidates from the money chase and allowing them to spend all their campaign time talking with voters.

Creating a fair playing field by reducing the need to raise large amounts of money to win.

Giving more Iowans the chance to run for office – regardless of their access to big money or their willingness to accept PAC contributions.

Creating a system where Iowans won't have to wonder if big contributions are influencing votes at the capitol with their campaign contributions.

The Clean Elections Act = Voter Owned Iowa Clean Elections

Background:

A Clean Elections Act would create voluntary public financing for state elections.  Candidates would qualify for public funding if they vowed to raise no private money, vowed to not use any of their own money, and collected a set number of signatures and $5 contributions from within their district.

In a contested general election, eligible candidates who chose to use the system would receive:

$3 million for a team running for governor and lieutenant governor.
$200,000 for a candidate for attorney general.
$125,000 for a candidate for a statewide office other than governor, lieutenant governor, or attorney general.
$40,000 for a candidate for the Iowa senate.
$30,000 for a candidate for the Iowa house or representatives.

Summary:

Voter Owned Iowa Clean Elections is a system that would free candidates from the money chase and allow them to spend more time with voters and constituents.  The same system has been used in Maine and Arizona for four full election cycles and has proven to be an effective way of reducing the influence of big money on elections.  6 of 8 statewide office holders in Arizona were elected without using any special interest money.  Voter turnout has increased by over 20%.  The number of people running for office has increased. And in the Nov 2006 Election, Governor Janet Napolitano won re-election, combining with her challenger to spend only $2 million, compared to the combined $18 million spent by candidates in the Iowa gubernatorial race.

A Clean Elections Act will allow every day Iowans to run for office without having to worry about raising large amounts of money.  Phase I of CCI's "Money and Elections in Iowa" study shows that the majority of money given to candidates is coming from PACs.  Challengers are at a huge disadvantage, needing to raise $65,000 to be competitive in a race for the house and $100,000 to be competitive for the senate. And as campaign spending has gotten out of control, campaigns have gone south. The Clean Elections Act would limit unnecessary spending by placing contribution limits on donors. The Clean Elections Act would also require Media outlets to file reports outlining who is paying for political advertisements, curbing the explosion of negative advertising.

For the cost of $5 per voter, Iowans could know for certain that their elected officials are working to address the needs of all Iowans, and not have to wonder about where all the money comes from. For around $10 million a year, our state elected officials would have the chance to focus on ideas and meeting their constituents, not chasing down the combined $32 million spent in the Nov. 2006 elections. Tell your legislator today: "Iowans want Voter Owned Clean Elections!"

 

By Prairie Dog

Viivi Shirley, mayor of Perry, serves a mostly rural population of 8,000, more than a quarter or which is Latino. Somehow the fear of immigrants has passed her by: “I don’t care whether these people are legal or illegal because when you look at their determination, the guts, the courage and stamina, the belief in something better and what they endured to get here – my gosh, now we are saying we don’t want these people?”

The Iowa House passed unanimously a bill to create a prescription drug database which threatened to invade the privacy of thousands of innocent Iowans. Although touted as a way to improve services for patients, the bill drew an unusual amount of hungry looks from law enforcement folks. Enter State Senator Jack Hatch, who insisted that access to data for law enforcement should only be allowed with probable cause in specific c investigations of specific c individuals. In other words, No Fishing Allowed. Thanks largely to Hatch, HF 722 contains no references to law enforcement, with only the prescribing doctor and the dispensing pharmacist allowed access to the database. In addition – with help from the American Civil Liberties of Iowa – an advisory council was charged with “ensuring that patient confidentiality, best interests, and civil liberties are at all times protected and preserved.”

Alice Weick, a soft-spoken registered nurse of 31 years at Finley Hospital in Dubuque, was fired for exercising her freedom of speech during a 3-day nurses’ strike. After devoting her entire adult life to her employer, Weick dared to publicly state her belief that Finley knowingly underpaid its nurses. For this, hospital management claimed that she failed to ‘represent the organization positively in the workplace and the community’ as called for in her contract. Apparently her leadership in SEIU, the nurses’ union, had nothing to do with it. Weick continues to support her fellow nurses, but now works in a hospital in Wisconsin. It’s a long commute, but worth the better pay and respect in her workplace.

Tax increment financing is a handy governmental mechanism for diverting taxes from public infrastructure, like schools and services, to rebates for businesses. Peter Fisher of the Iowa Policy Project profusely punches holes in the arguments of free-market fanatics who perversely promote TIFs as a legitimate tool to boost local commerce. ‘I always like to ask,’ said Fisher, ‘couldn’t you have got there some other way? The truth is, they get someone else to pay a greater share of the cost of government so they can put the money toward economic development.’ Johnson County Supervisor Rod Sullivan has been equally outspoken (and nearly alone in local government) on the inequities and hypocrisies of TIFs gone wild in Iowa. Sullivan is also the most passionate public voice against the regressive sales tax that cities and schools increasingly rely on. Dennis Harbaugh and Juanita Williams of Waterloo can afford to send their two sons to college. Why, they wondered, couldn’t less privileged kids have the same opportunities? Instead of just wondering, the retired UNI administrator and nurse mortgaged an apartment building they own and started a scholarship fund for all 17 students in a second-grade class at Cunningham School. Former Black Hawk County Supervisor Robert Smith made the first individual contribution and pledged to raise $85,000 (matching Harbaugh and Williams’ initial contribution) from local African-American –owned businesses. Contributions to the Harbaugh-Williams Education Promise Fund can be sent to Community Foundation, P.O. Box 1176, Waterloo 50704.

Five Cedar Rapids police detectives were promised a substantial raise if they withdrew from their union. When the raise never came, they sued the chief and his assistants for fraudulent misrepresentation. The Iowa Court of Appeals threw out the lawsuit, ruling that the detectives ‘were not justified in relying on any promises made by [management].’

U.S. District Judge Robert Pratt ruled that taxpayer funding of Iowa’s Prison Fellowship Ministries program at the Newton Correctional Facility is unconstitutional. Pratt didn’t settle for a slap on the wrist. He ordered the Fellowship to repay $1.5 million to the state for “the severe nature of the violation,” including a reliance on conversion to Evangelical Christianity as a requirement for behavior change. Too bad the judge couldn’t also fine the legislators who voted to use public money for religious indoctrination.

Denise O’Brien defied mainstream predictions by handily winning the Democratic nomination for Secretary of Agriculture, then managed to come within 2% of winning the general election despite a well-funded smear campaign by the Iowa Farm Bureau.

Jeff Strottman, Health and Safety Committee head of AFSCME 12, held University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics accountable after several violations involving mishandling of blood. Iowa’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, responding to a complaint filed by Strottman, cited and fined UIHC for leaking containers, improperly cleaned equipment, and other blood-related dangers to workers.

Trish Nelson, activist jack-of-all-trades, was a quiet but powerful force in many grassroots efforts, including Iowans for Better Local TV, Democracy for America, and Iowa’s Rapid Response Network, as well as volunteering for numerous local candidates.

David vs. Goliath: He kept the faith, stayed on message, and rode the tide to an astonishing victory over Jim Leach. Congressman-elect Dave Loebsack made the most of being in the right time and the right place while not shying away from support for a single-payer health care system, re-writing US trade agreements harmful to workers and communities, and getting the hell out of Iraq.

David vs. Goliath, Part II: Rare is the pair that makes Prairie Dog’s Honor Roll two consecutive years, but the daring duo of Gary Sanders and Wally Taylor deserves it. The two were victorious in keeping Iowa City from becoming even more complicit in supporting the Wal-Mart juggernaut that destroys small-town culture, exploits low-wage workers, relies on taxpayers to provide health coverage for its employees in the form of Medicaid, contributes to our national deficit through its massive trade with China, ad nauseam. Thanks to their legal skill and a knack for public relations, Wal-Mart will not be building a Super Center on public land within the city limits.

David vs. Goliath, Part III: No one gave her a chance a year ago, but Elesha Gayman knocked off a long-term incumbent in Davenport to become the youngest female state representative in the history of the Iowa House. The 28-year old grad student ran like an old pro, with important grassroots help from members of Progressive Action for the Common Good, Quad City Federation of Labor, and Iowa for Health Care.

Prophet of the Year: “Some people are…afraid to bring in a business model. But at the end of the day it’s the economic formula that will make us great. And that’s the most important thing to get right. And that’s what all these activities are really focused on, is to get that right.” --Teresa Wahlert, Board of Regents (Cedar Rapids Gazette, 6/16/06)

Most tortured metaphor of 2006: “Many of those people [who opposed Wal-Mart’s purchase of public property in Iowa City] are overzealous Boy Scouts who want to help the old lady cross the street when she may not want the help. Will we come down on the next big sports store because they sell weapons that kill animals?” —Bob Elliott, Iowa City City Council

Most tortured metaphor of all time: “They overplayed their hand….the goodwill bank hasn’t run dry, but it’s been bruised.” —State Senator Mike Gronstal” 

From the January 2006 issue of the Prairie Progressive, Iowa's oldest progressive newsletter, available only in hard copy for $12/yr. to PP, Box 1945, Iowa City 52244.  Co-editors of The Prairie Progressive are Jeff Cox and Dave Leshtz.