Molly Ivins: The Patriot amendment (clean elections laws attacked in AZ)

[Dudley_DUright]

No sooner do we win a long struggle to clean up politics and restore democracy in this country than we find the whole thing under attack, and we have to go out and re-fight the same battle all over again. Good thing we're not easily discouraged.

This is what's happening in Arizona, where the successful Clean Elections law is now under attack by the big special interests and national conservatives with ties that run from Tom DeLay (surprise!) to Bush's fund-raising machine.

Micah Sifry of Public Campaign reports, "They've raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that doesn't mention anywhere its true intent, to de-fund the Clean Elections system." This charming endeavor is masquerading under the misnomer "No Taxpayer Money for Politicians," a misleading moniker right up there with Bush's "Clear Skies and Healthy Forests" initiatives. What a shame they couldn't figure out a way to call it the Patriot Amendment.

The bad news for the bad guys is that evidence continues to accumulate that Clean Elections work -- they are actually reviving democracy. In Arizona and Maine, where Clean Elections have been in effect for a couple of years, more candidates are running and competitiveness has increased. According to a study done by political scientists at the University of Wisconsin in May of this year: "There is no question that public funding programs have increased the pool of candidates willing and able to run for state legislative office. This effect is most pronounced for challengers, who are far more likely than incumbents to accept public funding. In Arizona, the likelihood that an incumbent will have a competitive race more than doubled from 22 percent of all races in 1998 to 45 percent in 2002."

more...

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=17140

[Miss Authoritiva]

1. You'd think even a semi-literate electorate would have figured out

this hack ploy by now:

This charming endeavor is masquerading under the misnomer "No Taxpayer Money for Politicians."

Next time, let's try for the "Pry the Lobbyists' Checks Out of Their Cold Dead Fingers" amendment.

[Dudley_DUright]

3. Republicans are masters at attaching Orwellian sounding

names to their destructive ideas. They know that they win the argument if they control the language, irregardless of the merits.

[nosmokes]

2. amen, sister molly.

from the article:We live in a country where 98-plus percent of the members of Congress get re-elected every year with no serious competition. That, my friends, is a dead democracy.

can i get a witness?

[Raster]

4. and it doesn't matter, dem or repuke, the government club...

...is very much by invitation only. The deck is stacked against John or Jane Doe that decide they want to venture in to politics.