[GPCA Updates] NEWS ADVISORY: Greens decry defeat of public financing bill

[Jim Stauffer]

                 News Advisory
           THE GREEN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA
              http://www.cagreens.org


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 					     
Thursday, June 22, 2006


 
Greens decry defeat of public financing bill,
note measure would have gone a long way to
reducing power of special interests in elections

SACRAMENTO (June 22, 2006) – Greens chalked up the defeat Wednesday here of
public financing legislation that would benefit all political parties – and
go a long way to cleaning up elections by reducing the power of special
interests – to the influence of those special interests.

The measure, AB583, was approved 47-31 in the Assembly last year. But it
failed to get a third vote necessary to move out of the Senate Elections
Committee Wednesday. Authored by Assemblymember Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley),
the bill died when other Democrats would not support it.

The "California Clean Money and Fair Elections Act" would have established
a voluntary system of public funding of campaigns similar to those in
Arizona, Connecticut and Maine. Candidates from all parties, and
independents, could qualify for millions of dollars in public campaign
funding by following a set a rules designed to limit the influence of
special interests. 
 
"The measure would have gone a long way toward creating a more democratic
political process in California by providing a cleaner image to voters, who
have been driven away from the polls because of the corruption and
unfairness in our system," said Dr. Forrest Hill, the Secretary of State
candidate for the Green Party of California. 

Hill, who is campaigning to "democratize" California elections to make
every vote count, said the defeat of that legislation will just add to
voter apathy in November after a record-low turnout in the June Primary
Election.

"The bill would have diminished the perception of corruption in politics,
and would have opened up our elections to smaller parties and those in the
electorate who are desperately seeking choices at the ballot box, but who
now feel disenfranchised and fail to vote," said Hill.