VOICE COALITION WELCOMES THREE NEW MEMBERS
By Pam Mackey-Taylor, Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club

The VOICE Coalition, a group of organizations working to pass the Voter Owned Iowa Clean Elections (VOICE) Act, is proud this week to welcome three new organizations: the Iowa Renewable Energy Association (IRENEW), the Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club and Sustainable Ecological Economic Development (S.E.E.D.).

"With the addition of these three organizations, we now have more than a dozen organizations on board," Kyle Lobner of Common Cause Iowa said. "As the VOICE Coalition expands, we continue to show that support for campaign finance reform is widespread and diverse."

The VOICE Act, proposed in the Iowa Legislature as House File 805 and Senate File 553, would provide full voluntary public financing for candidates for statewide and legislative offices who refuse all outside contributions. The legislation is similar to laws already in place in Maine, Connecticut and Arizona.

"The Sierra Club supports the VOICE legislation to help make candidates more accountable to the public. Iowans understand the connection between clean air, clean water and clean elections, and they don't want to see environmental safeguards sold to the highest bidder. We need to know that legislators are responding to people, not well funded special interests," Pam Mackey Taylor, chair of the Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club, said.

Under the current system, elections are becoming increasingly expensive, forcing candidates to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to run a competitive campaign for a seat in the Iowa House or Senate. This allows wealthy special interests and campaign contributors to gain influence and give an often decisive advantage to candidates they feel will support their agenda.

"Public financing of political campaigns is the only way to guarantee that the people's interests come first," IRENEW Executive Director Michelle Kenyon Brown said.

"We need to level the political playing field with public financing. Once a power base is established, real citizens can then reclaim our birthright of political power that's been usurped by special interest groups and multi-national corporations at the state and federal level," S.E.E.D. founder Michael Richards said. 

Along with IRENEW, the Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club and S.E.E.D., the VOICE coalition also includes Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (ICCI), the Iowa Citizen Action Network (ICAN), Common Cause Iowa, the League of Women Voters, Progressive Action for the Common Good (PACG), the Iowa Farmers Union, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Interfaith Alliance of Iowa (TIAI), Iowa Conference United Methodist Church, Concerned Democrats of Polk County and the Progressive Coalition of Central Iowa (PCCI).