Here’s some terrific news. With victories yesterday in statewide votes in Montana and Colorado, both by nearly three-to-one margins, we’re now one quarter of the way to amending the U.S. Constitution to overturn Citizens United.
Montana voters strongly endorsed I-166, the Prohibition on Corporate Contributions and Expenditures in Montana Elections Act, by a margin of three-to-one giving the citizen initiative a vote of 75 percent. I-166 received bipartisan support from prominent Montana political figures. Governor Brian Schweitzer (D), Lt. Governor John Bohlinger (R), and former Secretary of State Verner Bertelsen
Read More
Jim Wallis, the theologian, author, and CEO of Sojourners, has a terrific piece in Politico today.
Here are some of the finest parts:
Our deepest values have no price — our common ground, our common good, caring for our neighbor and looking out for the least and the lost — these are the values that work for us. Sadly, those aren’t the values of the current system.
NBC News has just published a great report focusing on major examples of corporate spending on the 2012 elections. Here are some key excerpts:
The biggest corporate contributor in the 2012 election so far doesn’t appear to make anything — other than very large contributions to a conservative super PAC.
Specialty Group Inc., of Knoxville, Tenn., donated nearly $5.3 million between Oct. 1 and Oct. 11 to
FreedomWorks for America, which is affiliated with former GOP House Majority Leader Dick Armey…
Free Speech For People today joined with more than fifty prominent, national organizations to express their concern about two critical threats to our democratic system: corporate influence in elections and laws and official actions that suppress the vote. Under the banner “Money Out, Voters In,” the organizations issued the following joint statement pledging to fight special interest money in politics and to support the rights of all voters:
For Immediate Release
November 1, 2012
Contact: Ryan O’Donnell (413) 335-9824
Free Speech For People and CREW
Call for Justice Department Investigation of
Group Promoting Big Money in Politics
Frontline and Marketplace released an important new investigative report last night that highlights how a dark-money group called American Tradition Partnership (ATP) may have broken the law by illegally coordinating its work with the campaigns of candidates running for office.
The Chevron oil company has made a gift of $2.5 million to a super PAC.
According to the Washington Post:
The Alaska Dispatch has a new story on foreign corporate spending on our elections. Excerpts are below.
Caveat: while the article accurately notes that it’s illegal for foreign individuals to spend money to influence U.S. elections, the article is incorrect in asserting that such spending by corporations is also illegal. Unfortunately for all of us, Citizens United removed such restrictions on corporate spending, which is one of many serious reasons we must overturn it with a constitutional amendment.
Jessica Crist, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Montana Synod, wrote an excellent column endorsing the Montana ballot initiative, I-166, published in the Missoulian today. Here’s a brief excerpt, but the whole column is well worth reading:
The Supreme Court’s definition of personhood notwithstanding, our faith tradition teaches that people, not corporations and special interests, are made in the image of God.