“Open Letter to Supporters of Howard Dean from Public Campaign Action Fund”
February 20, 2004
Dear Dean For America supporter:
On February 18, when Governor Howard Dean announced that he was ending his campaign for the presidency, he talked about continuing its mission of changing “the face of democracy so that it represents ordinary Americans once again, government that will not be bought and sold.”
We in the movement for Clean Money/Clean Elections salute that goal. Only through comprehensive public financing of campaigns can we break candidates’ debilitating dependence on wealthy special interests, and open up the system to the voices of ordinary Americans.
We are writing to you today to invite you to join us, if you haven’t already, in making that goal a reality for all levels of state and federal office.
You can start by going here:
http://www.pcactionfund.org/lincolncall/ (And if you want to do something fun, go here:
http://www.pcactionfund.org/contest/ )
Today, thanks to the hard work of activists across the country, five states have enacted a version of Clean Money/Clean Elections—Arizona, Maine, New Mexico, North Carolina and Vermont. A sixth, Massachusetts, overwhelmingly passed the system by ballot initiative, but entrenched incumbents in the state legislature refused to fund it despite a state Supreme Court order. A seventh state, Connecticut, may embrace the system this year, in the wake of political scandals there. And there are other states not far behind.
The fight is also gaining in Congress, after years when no one even talked about public financing as a goal. A few weeks ago, Congressman John Tierney (D-MA) reintroduced his Clean Money/Clean Elections bill (HR 3641), developed with our close assistance. In the Senate, Maria Cantwell (D-WA) will soon introduce a similar Clean Money/Clean Elections bill, one that was previously introduced by the late Paul Wellstone (D-MN) and John Kerry (D-MA).
To win this fight, we are also going to have to make reform an issue in electoral campaigns, and make sure that politicians who do lots of favors for their wealthy special interest donors learn that there is a cost to doing so. That is why we have made educating voters in targeted swing states about the special interest influence over the Bush White House a priority for this year.
To find out more about our work, go to
http://www.pcactionfund.org. If you want to join our growing network of activists, go to
http://www.pcactionfund.org/lincolncall/. And if you want to help build this movement, tell your friends by forwarding this message and consider making a contribution to our efforts by going here
https://secure.ga3.org/03/pcafsupport.The good news is that this isn’t a pipe dream. It’s already happening. But the work is far from finished, and we have to fight to defend these gains from lobbyists and wealthy rightwing interests who want to take us back to the bad-old status quo.
Whatever you do, don’t give up the fight. Together, we can take back America!
Sincerely,
Nick Nyhart, David Donnelly, Micah L. Sifry, and Deb Ross
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