[CRNMC] Another direction in which to go

[Charles Cresson Wood]

Hello Baile,
Politicians should not take it personally, it's a law intended to change the system, intended to prevent corruption. Our local politicians need not worry if they are not corrupt. I am aware of no recent incidents of corruption on the Board of Supervisors. 
So it is the system that is corrupt, not specific local politicians. In selling it to
voters, we could talk about how the system gives corporations rights that should be
reserved for natural persons only. We can talk about how money has twisted our system
of government to be a government of the rich, for the rich (this fits nicely with the
Occupy message).
/s/ Charles


-----Original Message-----
>From: Baile Oakes <baileoakes at gmail.com>
>Sent: Dec 2, 2014 10:17 AM
>To: Charles Cresson Wood <ccwood at ix.netcom.com>, Community Rights Network <crn at lists.mcn.org>
>Cc: "Michael St. John" <msjetal at pacbell.net>
>Subject: Re: [CRNMC] Another direction in which to go
>
>Sounds like a positive direction, Charles.
>
>At the same time how many of our local county politicians are suspect regarding this particular type of legislation ?
>
>baile
>
>
>On Dec 2, 2014, at 9:40 AM, Charles Cresson Wood wrote:
>
>> Hello community rights friends,
>> 
>> Another direction that CRNMC could pursue at this point in time is an “anti-corruption act” (ACA). This exciting recent development – manifest in a law just passed in Tallahassee, Florida – was brought my attention by Michael St. John. The intention of these laws is to get corporate money out of politics. These laws prevent lobbyists, PACs, or any other representative acting on behalf of corporations from donating any money to politicians. These acts also mandate full transparency, ending secret money. This for example means that “bundlers,” those who combine money from various sources and then make a donation to a political campaign, must disclose all sources of the money. Limits are also placed on the amount that can be donated to politicians seeking to get reelected. 
>> 
>> These laws have been reviewed for Constitutionality, and at least so far, they appear to be Constitutional (so far as I can tell, no court cases yet). A model act that we could use was drafted by former Federal Election Commission chairman Trevor Potter, working in conjunction with democracy reform leaders and constitutional attorneys from across the political spectrum. The act enjoys support from both progressives and conservatives. This might be a “mom and apple pie” (just about everybody wants it) unifying way to bring together many different segments of our county.
>> 
>> Given all the current public anger about the economy (how the Federal government refuses to prosecute big banks for mortgage fraud, hands over our tax dollars to bail out Wall Street firms that took outrageous risks, provides very little help for the growing number of homeless, etc.), we could probably capitalize on this anger to get a Mendocino County ACA passed. If we seek to dethrone the corporations, taking away their ability to influence politicians via money is a good place to start. If politicians are less beholden to corporations, in the future we should see fewer laws intended to favor corporations.
>> 
>> This ACA law was very popular when it came time to vote. Some 67% of the voters in Tallahassee voted YES on the law (isn’t that our magic Measure S number?).
>> 
>> Four-minute video:
>> https://represent.us/action/tallahassee/
>> 
>> About the model law:
>> http://anticorruptionact.org/
>> 
>> /s/ Charles
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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