Citizen Funded Elections

With hundreds of thousands of Americans outraged by the plague of gun violence in our schools expected to march in Washington on Saturday, Common Cause today released a practical guide for challenging the power of the gun lobby.

There’s some good news for democracy this morning from a place where we haven’t seen much of it lately: Washington, D.C.

D.C. residents want their government back from special interests and Mayor Bowser should sign the citizen-financed election bill passed unanimously by the City Council. I testified in support of this legislation because I have witnessed firsthand the positive impact citizen-financed elections can bring about after I helped pass Connecticut’s Citizens’ Election Program.

The truth is too often in short supply in our politics, so when a candidate provides it – and with no punches pulled – it’s worth paying attention.

A citizens’ movement has brought the city government in our nation’s capital to the verge of implementing a tested-and-proven-effective way of breaking the power of big money in politics and getting candidates to focus their attention on public, not private interests.