Category: Defending Key Reforms

Last week, we joined with a coalition of Washington State groups to deliver testimony at a state Senate Governmental Operations Committee hearing on SJM 8002, a joint memorial that would call on Congress to get big money out of politics. Supporters of the resolution filled the hearing room and represented cities and towns from across Washington State. 

Free Speech For People staff, Arielle Davis and Oske Buckley, provided testimony, which may be viewed, below. 

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Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich has an excellent piece in the Christian Science Monitor today dispelling the myth that big money was beaten for good in the last election.

I keep hearing that the billionaires and big corporations that poured all that money into the 2012 election learned their lesson. They lost their shirts and won’t do it again.

Don’t believe that for an instant…

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Sheryl Gay Stolberg

The New York Times

December 8, 2012

Article excerpted below: 

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Miles Mogulescu has an important article in the Huffington Post today that lays out the many reasons why money in politics is still a huge problem, despite the fact that some of the biggest spenders in the 2012 elections didn’t get the outcome they wanted.

Here are a few key excerpts:

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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

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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.

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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.

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Here’s an excellent story on CNN radio about how Montana’s upcoming vote on I-166 ties into so many values Americans everywhere hold sacred.

It’s well worth your 10 minutes to listen:

http://soundcloud.com/cnn/cnnradioreportsa10-12-2012-mp3

It’s dated October 12th, and it’s called "The Biggest Election Fight You’re Missing", by Lisa Desjarins of CNN.

Free Speech For People is helping to support the campaign for I-166 in Montana.

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Note Need for I-166 to Bolster Permanent Protection

HELENA – Campaign finance reform advocates welcomed action by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to stay a lower court ruling that struck down limits on campaign contributions to Montana state candidates just days before Montana’s ballot were mailed. The action means that the limits will be reinstated through the election.

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Voters Will Still Have the Opportunity to Declare that Corporations Aren’t People and Money Isn’t Speech with November Vote

HELENA – The people of Montana won the right to vote on I-166 this November when in a 6 to 1 decision Montana’s Supreme Court rejected an attempt by opponents to remove it from the ballot.

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