Yes! Magazine covered last night’s vote in St. Petersburg on our proposed city ordinance, that would ban super PACs and foreign-influenced corporations from spending in local elections. On the ordinance, the magazine explains:

The ordinance, if passed later this year, would directly affect only elections in St. Petersburg. But it’s part of a far-reaching legal strategy to reduce the influence of money in politics by abolishing super PACs—groups that can take unlimited amounts of money from donors to spend in political campaigns—at the national level.

“This is a serious issue in our country and it has a corrosive effect on our elections and in our democratic process,” said Darden Rice, vice chair of the City Council. “But we are going to have to tackle it on all levels—from our city halls all the way up to the Supreme Court.”

The ordinance challenges super PACs’ legal foundation, which includes the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission. There, the court ruled that corporations and unions have a right to free speech, just like individual people, and that campaign donations are a form of protected speech. That decision set the stage for a flood of corporate money into U.S. elections.

Rice’s ordinance doesn’t directly challenge Citizens United. But it does defy SpeechNow.org v. Federal Elections Commission, in which a Washington, D.C., court of appeals interpreted Citizens United to mean that there should be no limits on political contributions to independent groups that support or oppose political candidates. That’s how we ended up with the super PACs that are spending tens of millions of dollars in the 2016 election season.

Rice’s ordinance challenges that decision by limiting the amount a contributor can give to an independent group to $5,000—the same limit that existed before the ruling.

To read the article in full via YES! Magazine, click here.