Fighting the urge....
Submitted by KatyMunger on Mon, 06/28/2010 - 11:08am
... to slap the Senate Dems this morning after getting a look at the weekend's editorials. Yes, once again, in the face of the reality of the ethics scandals, and the coming indictment of Easley (you know it's going to happen, sooner or later) Dem Senate reps talked a big game and then folded, letting the chance to take the lead on ethics reform slip through their hands. Now they're just standing there, like deer caught in the headlights, waiting for the potshots being lobbied their way to hit them and praying they get out of Raleigh before the Easley mess hits the fan.
These aren't stupid people. They have to know how bad this looks. They have to know it's going to get worse. People have been warning them to get in front of the ethics debate for half a year. Why in the world aren't they showing more spine on this issue? Why in the world are they listening to their far right constituents on this issue: do they really think those people are going to vote for them under any circumstances? Why aren't the other Dems in the Senate sitting them down and saying, "Are you insane? We have to present a united front on this."
I hate the smell of panic in the morning.... from the Dem NC Link of the Day:
Following up the posting on Friday, here are Sunday editorials from the Winston-Salem Journal, Raleigh News & Observer, and Fayetteville Observer that sharply criticize Democrats in the state Senate for removing the public financing provisions from their now weakened ethics bill. There are still several important elements in the bill, but it’s no longer a serious effort to tackle “pay to play” politics, and Senate Democrats stand to be embarrassed as Republicans and the media pick it apart. Also, another Friday follow-up, here’s a column about the questionable fate of the DISCLOSE Act in the US Senate and the value of a public financing, “floors-not-ceiling” approach at the federal level.
The Supreme Court of the United States
hangs over any such plan like a harpie on the gates of Hades. They've granted review to the challenge to the Arizona system. If you think they did that in order to uphold public finance systems, you're kidding yourself.
"Man is free at the moment he wishes to be." -Voltaire
You never know, but...
The Arizona court ruling was based on one feature of the plan in question, a feature that many VOE plans do not have. And despite the John Locke Foundation telling NC officials the “stay” in the Arizona case means they should not award matching funds in our judicial public financing program, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that matching fund provision in the NC program and the Supremes rejected an appeal to hear challengers in the case. The Fourth Circuit judges ruled that the plaintiffs challenging the NC program "remain free to raise and spend as much money, and engage in as much political speech, as they desire. They will not be jailed, fined, or censured if they exceed the trigger amounts. The only (arguably) adverse consequence that will occur is the distribution of matching funds to any candidates participating in the public financing system. But this does not impinge on the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights. To the contrary, the distribution of these funds 'furthers, not abridges, pertinent First Amendment values' by ensuring that the participating candidate will have an opportunity to engage in responsive speech.”
And even if the Supremes use their ultimate power to kill all provisions that link the release of matching funds to the spending of others, that’s just one part of a public financing program and other models (like the federal Fair Elections Now Act) use different approaches to help candidates in expensive contests.
Katy Munger,
Progress North Carolina
www.progressnc.org
Lead, follow or get out of the way....
That whooshing sound you DON'T hear
...is the sound of North Carolina voters NOT begging for the repeal of public financing of Appellate Court races and races for the three Council of State races that already exist.
Strange, isn't it? No great cry from the citizenry to repeal the existing VOE.
Why does anybody give any thought to the VOE fear-mongers, then?
Ka-ching
Not the sound of me dropping money into the NCDP coffers. Three friends called me in the past week saying "we need your support and the support of other progressives to hold the House and Senate in November."
Really? You need our support? Could have fooled me.
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
What can we do now?
I made my one little call the other day in support of VOE, but if that is against a special interest group drumming up tons of calls... I just wonder what can we do differently next time?
Luckily, living in Chapel Hill/Orange County/4th District, my elected officials at the various levels are usually pretty on top of things & don't need a lot of conviencing to do the right thing.
When will VOE be considered again? What can we do to get ahead of it?
The progressive community
needs a passionate advocate to match up against the dark side. No matter what you think about Art Pope, he puts his money where his mouth is ... and is single handedly driving the right wing agenda in North Carolina, with occasional assists from Luddy.
We have no counterpart with enough money to go head to head with him. Our guys go ga-ga when they pick up a hundred thousand here or there for building a mobilization machine; Art Pope drops that amount like chump change, spending millions upon millions to pick off opportunities - with literally no opposition.
Unless we can start fighting fire with fire, we're going to keep getting our asses kicked.
Art Pope inherited all the money he's spending to remake North Carolina in his own image. But that money is still green and it buys a shitload of influence.
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
Yeah, it does
Just to get a glimpse of what access that money buys, read some of the tripe that a JLF-sponsored hack was able to present to the GA's Climate Change committee.
He even gets into the "beneficial" aspects of extremely elevated atmospheric Co2 levels. Everybody knows plants just love carbon dioxide! Yay!
F**king idiot.