Clean Money Clean Elections
Send an email to your Assembly person
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Question- Why the Assembly and not the Senate? The New York State Assembly is currently considering this legislation. The Governor is already on board. Once we win in the Assembly, our momentum will enable us to begin our campaign to convince the New York State Senate to pass the legislation.)
Imagine Albany filled with politicians owing nothing to special interests.
BIG MONEY is a Cancer on the Body Politic
- Decent New Yorkers can’t run for office if they don’t have connections to corporations, special interests or the wealthy.
- NYS Assembly and Senatorial candidates have to raise one thousand dollars for each day they are in session.
- Candidates spend too much time raising money and not enough time talking to voters.
- New York’s elected leaders receive the overwhelming majority of their campaign
contributions from corporations, PAC’s and wealthy individuals (less than one percent of the residents of New York contribute).
- Incumbents rarely lose and many races go uncontested.
Clean Money Clean Elections is not a bandaid approach. It already works in Maine
and Arizona. The overwhelming majority of elected leaders in those state
legislatures ran clean campaigns and are not beholden to any special interests.
- In Maine and Arizona more races are contested and more women and people of
color are running. The costs of campaigns have dropped dramatically in those
states.
- The Clean Money Clean Elections system is voluntary. Candidates choose whether to seek private financing or public funds.
- Clean candidates agree to not accept any private contributions and are funded based on the average campaign spending of previous races.
- Clean candidates qualify by raising a prescribed number of signatures and $5
contributions from voters.
- If privately funded candidates outspend their clean opponents the clean candidates receive more funding to level the playing field.
- The system is open to third parties.
- Maine funds the system through the state’s general fund. Arizona funds it through fees on lobbyists and civil and criminal fines.
Clean Money Clean Elections Resources
Brochures
Articles
- Legislature Should Join Spitzer in Support of Full Public Financing by Richard Kirsch 3/07 >
- What's the Price Tag? 12/06
- What Does NBA Basketball Have to Do With Clean Money Clean Elections Anyway? by Adonal Foyle, 7/06
- Clean Money Clean Elections 101, by Paula Hansen, Metro Justice News, 5/06
- Clean Money Clean Elections: A Prescription for a More Perfect Electoral System, by Tom Belknap, Metro Justice News 4/06
- Follow the Money, by Jon Greenbaum, Metro Justice News, 4/06
- The Best Politicians Money Can(not) Buy, by Jon Greenbaum, Metro Justice News, 12/05
Streaming Video
The Road to Clean Elections - a twelve minute video produced by Public Campaign
"Who is my Assemblyperson?" - go to the BOE website and click on "online Voter Information" and fill out the online form.