Yesterday, while here in Washington for a national homelessness summit, I walked over to the House Judiciary Committee to hear Sen. Barack Obama introduce his new legislation to reduce deliberately deceptive misinformation and voter disenfranchisement in national elections.
False endorsements and misleading mailers from big-money special interests have threatened the integrity of democratic elections all over the country. On Tuesday night, we have our chance to give Santa Monica comprehensive campaign finance reform.
Our delayed discussion (highlighted two weeks ago by the Daily Press, “Big spenders facing fair fight,” Feb. 26, page 1) comes back to City Hall near the beginning of Tuesday night’s City Council meeting. Also back, I hope, will be the 40 or more residents and experts who stayed late last time but left unheard because of an unmanageably long agenda.
Santa Monica, where outside developer money and resident interests are often at odds, deserves and needs voter-owned elections.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 9, 2007. Read the original PDF.