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California Church IMPACT has been working with Common Cause on several political reforms. We now have two things on the docket that may be of great interest to you.
The first is SB 1107 (Allen and Hancock-D) that would allow local governments to create and maintain a dedicated fund to provide public financing of elections. In the post-Citizens United Supreme Court ruling, the flood of money into elections has been awesome – and not in a good way. This bill will help underfunded and new candidates compete at the local levels. We think this is an opportunity that we cannot afford to pass up. It gives us a signficant alternative to fund raising as the primary function of elections.
Is it perfect? Of course not. What in elections ever is? But it is a critical step in a good direction, and we urge you to contact Assembly Appropriations and urge passing of SB 1107 out of that committee. We need your comments before August 11.
Please send your emails to Appropriations Chief Consultant Pedro Reyes at Pedro.Reyes@asm.ca.gov or FAX your letter to Assembly Appropriations Chair, Lorena Gonzales at 916-319-2181.
Then please start contacting your own Assembly Members to urge passage on the Assembly Floor. Go to our action link here to contact your Assembly Member.
The second action is more complex. The Fair Poltical Practices Commission (FPPC) is undertaking a sweeping “clean up” of the Political Reform Act. First introduced in 1974, it is one of the strongest in the nation, directing what is and is not lawful with respect to campaigns, money, political action committees, etc.
However, over the years as more and more issues have come up and the laws expanded and amended, the law itself has become unwieldy and overly complicated. This “clean up” is meant to organize related issues into sensible categories and to clarify language so everyone can understand the “rules of the game”.
The work is now done, and the first draft is available for public comment until September 30. We invite you to make your comments if this is an area that interests you. It is 176 pages long, but not all of it needs to be your concern if there are specific issues you prefer to discuss.With the help of another ally, CA Forward, you can gain access to this document for review.
Please visit http://www.cafwd.org/pra You may also sign up for updates about the project.
Public comments may be made at www.cafwd.org/pracomment or directly to FPPC via email at:
pracomment@fppc.ca.gov.
While so much of our joint work is about specific justice issues, occasionally we have to take care of democracy itself. We hope you will take such steps as you can today.
Thank you!