HAPPY HOLIDAYS…DM SUMMIT…CAMPUS HIGHLIGHT…MONEY ON MY MIND…IDEA OF THE MONTH…NY FAIR ELECTIONS…QUOTES OF THE MONTH…NEW POLLING…FACTS YOU CAN USE…
HOLIDAY MESSAGE FROM OUR FOUNDER
“We Need Your Help”
At this holiday season, we wish our entire Democracy Matters family great health and happiness. But we also need to ask for your help.
To continue to support our fantastic students in the work they are doing on and off campus, please consider sending a holiday donation to Democracy Matters today.
The American people’s voices are being drowned out by lobbyists, corporate wealthy donors and special interests. DM students are fighting to make politicians accountable to us — to create a real democracy! I hope you will join us with your support!
Please send your check today to Democracy Matters, P.O. Box 157, Hamilton, NY 13346. Your smallest and your largest contributions will enable us to continue this critical fight.
13th ANNUAL DEMOCRACY MATTERS SUMMIT – January 31 – February 2
The 13th GREAT Democracy Matters Summit is coming soon! This year’s Summit will run from 5:00 pm on Friday, January 31st to noon on Sunday, February 2nd in Albany, NY.
Join us to meet experts in the field, network with other organizers, DM alumns, and staff, and participate in hands-on workshops on campus organizing, money in politics, using the media, holding great events, and much more.
Below are some comments from last year’s Summit participants:
“It was inspirational to be talking with so many great people with exciting ideas and to know I am not alone!”
“Brainstorming at the Summit about successes and failures in our campus organizing was fantastic. I can’t wait to get back to school to apply what I learned.”
“Knowing that as students we can have a real impact is completely empowering.”
REGISTER TODAY BY CLICKING ON THE SUMMIT BUTTON AT:
www.democracymatters.org
Or email anitak@democracymatters.org
CAMPUS HIGHLIGHT: SKIDMORE COLLEGE
Faced in September with a school requirement to collect 300 student signatures to qualify as an official new club, Skidmore College’s Democracy Matters students not only succeeded, but then implemented an ambitious and creative outreach program. They tabled at a local Peace Fair, stamping dollar bills with the slogan “Not To Be Used For Bribing Politicians,” and organized a well-attended series of faculty lectures with topics including “The Price Tag for a Dysfunctional Democracy” and “Gender, Race, and the Politics of Money”.
They also screened the documentary, Pricele$$, attended public hearings in Albany on corruption in the state legislature, and are winding up the semester with an innovative Slam Poetry/Folk Music Festival. At the campus festival, student poets and musicians will perform short sets, while attendees share a potluck and create holiday cards urging politicians to support NY Fair Elections. According to DM campus leader, Gretchen Schwab, the festival will be fun, build community, and “show how a true democracy involves everyone and equally benefits all.”
Congratulations Skidmore DM for your great work!
MONEY ON MY MIND
Jay Mandle praises the new documentary, Inequality for All, as “an important and valuable statement…an unsparing depiction of how income and wealth in the United States have become concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite of super-rich individuals.”
But he also faults the film’s creators, Robert Reich and Jacob Kornbluth, for neglecting to explore how to counter our growing inequality. They stop short by not calling for a politically engaged social movement, even though the film’s implicit message is that rekindled activism is the only way to reverse the stampede toward inequality.
Read the full article and explore other issues of MOMM.
IDEA OF THE MONTH: HIGH SCHOOL VISITS
With winter break just around the corner, DMers have a great opportunity to spread the message of student activism back home. While college students are on break, high schools are still in session. Your former high school teachers would welcome a visit from you to their classes. Make appointments to talk to classes in history, civics, social studies, government or to school clubs in December.
Share with them personal stories of your active involvement in Democracy Matters and talk about the importance of an inclusive democracy and what young people can do to promote change. Contact your favorite high school teachers today and make arrangements to talk to their students. Spread the message of young people’s commitment to building a real democracy!
Read more about High School Outreach.
NEW YORK FAIR ELECTIONS UPDATE
Governor Cuomo appointed The Moreland Commission to investigate Public Corruption soon after the NY legislature came up just two votes short of passing the NY Fair Elections Bill.
Fair Elections would have created a small-donor system of public campaign financing, modeled on the successful and long-lived New York City system of public campaign financing. Professor Michael Malbin testified that “Public funding would cost each New Yorker $2.12 per year and could save the state millions currently spent on special interest provisions large campaign donors currently secure for themselves.”
The Moreland Commission’s report is due out shortly and there is reason to believe that that it will strongly endorse a Fair Elections type of public financing. Recent polling reported that over 80% of New Yorkers believe corruption is a serious problem in the State capitol. Democracy Matters and the broad social movement that fought for Fair Elections last year is poised to build on the Commission’s recommendations, and create the grassroots people’s movement that will win passage of this fundamental component of an inclusive democracy.
Read a recent NY Times editorial here.
QUOTES OF THE MONTH
Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig on the Government shutdown:
“There was only one clear victor in this latest governance collapse: the war chests of the radicals who brought this government to its knees. We lost $24 billion. They raised millions.”
Columbia Law School Professor Richard Briffault:
“Whatever the outcome in McCutcheon, the future of campaign finance reform, if it is to succeed, is likely to depend more on the adoption of public subsidies and other measures that empower small donors, and inspire candidates to pursue their donations.”
Read Lessig’s article here.
Read Briffault’s article here.
NEW POLL SUPPORTS GETTING BIG MONEY OUT OF POLITICS
“The issue of money in politics is one of a few issues with the power to break through the divisive national discourse and the presumption of dysfunction in Washington.” So concluded a recent survey of the most competitive Democratic and Republican districts in the country. Poll results indicated that voters from all parties and all demographic groups “are angered by the influence of big money that puts even greater distance between their members and the people at home – and are willing to change it.”
The major finding was that respondents strongly support serious and bold reforms. Two thirds endorse a plan to overhaul campaign spending by getting rid of big donations! The idea of replacing the current system with one in which candidates would receive small donations with matched public funding received broad support across all districts. And some of the strongest supporters were swing voters – people both parties will target in their campaigns next fall.
Examine the full poll conducted November 8th by Greenberg, Quinlan and Rosner here.
FACTS YOU CAN USE
Wealthy corporate interests exercise enormous power through their employees’ campaign contributions to candidates. Importantly, those contributions “buy” access to politicians by corporate lobbyists who then actively influence both policy and legislation on a vast array of subjects biased to business interests.
Listed below are lobbying expenditures of the top spenders during just three months – July through September, 2013 – in a non-election year.
The Top Organizations Lobbying in the Third Quarter of 2013:
1. Chamber of Commerce of the U.S. — $12,160,000
2. National Ass’n. of Realtors — $8,240,000
3. Grocery Manufacturers Ass’n. — $7,470,000
4. American Chemistry Council — $4,750,000
5. Nat’l Cable & Telecommunications Ass’n. — $4,440,000
6. AT&T Services & Affiliates — $4,300,000
7. American Medical Ass’n. — $4,270,000
8. Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers — $4,020,000
9. Comcast — $3,980,000
10. Open Society Policy Center — $3,900,000
11. Northrop Grumman — $3,800,000
12. Boeing Co. — $3,790,000
13. American Hospital Ass’n. — $3,750,000
14. U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform — $3,690,000
15. Lockheed Martin — $3,460,000
16. General Electric — $3,420,000
17. Google — $3,370,000
18. Nat’l Ass’n. of Broadcasters — $3,260,000
19. CTIA – The Wireless Ass’n. — $3,130,000
20. FedEx — $3,041,394
21. Verizon Communications — $3,040,000
Public campaign financing is a bulwark against paid corporate lobbyists. In recent testimony, Deputy Secretary of State James Spallone of Connecticut reported that the system of public campaign financing in his state “reduced the influence of special interest lobbyists.”
Read more.
To honor our 2013 activists, we list ten Democracy Matters chapters in each E-News: University of Mary Washington…University of Minnesota/Twin Cities…University of Pittsburgh…University of Puget Sound…University of Saint Francis…University of Wisconsin/Eau Claire…Vassar College…Binghamton University…Boston University…Brown University…
More Campus Chapters.