Voter-owned elections are on the chopping block in November
On November’s general election ballot, down below the candidates for U.S Congress, below candidates for governor and the Oregon legislature, and even below candidates for local office, there will be a ballot question asked only of Portlanders. Near the bottom of the ballot, Portland residents will be asked if they want to keep their city’s campaign public financing program, Voter-Owned Elections. And even though it appears about a mile down the ballot, this might just be the most important decision Portland voters make the entire election.
Portland’s Voter-Owned Elections program, enacted in 2005, gives everyday Portlanders a genuine role in choosing their leaders in City Hall. Under the program, candidates for Mayor and City Council can qualify for enough public funding to run viable campaigns by showing that they have broad-based community support. Participation is voluntary, and candidates who participate have to follow strict rules about how the money can be spent. But once candidates qualify, they spend their time talking directly to voters instead of raising money from big donors. This means candidates who are chosen by Portlanders and who are accountable to Portlanders.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Citizens United v. the Federal Elections Commission, overturning a century of settled law and opening the floodgates for corporations and special interests to spend their way to power in political campaigns. Since then, organizations dedicated to healthy democracies from across the country have been calling for the Fair Elections Now Act, which provides campaign public financing at the national level. In Portland, we’re already leading the way with Voter-Owned Elections, our local version of campaign public financing. But now it’s more important than ever to protect our reform program when it comes to the ballot in November. Corporate lobbyists and downtown developers have already exposed their desire to kill the program before it goes to a vote of the people, so it’s critical that we spread the word and make sure that Portlanders vote all the way to the bottom of their ballot.
Since 2005, Portland’s Voter-Owned Elections program has dramatically limited the total spending in local campaigns and has given Portlanders from every neighborhood a true stake in their democracy. Amanda Fritz, only the 7th woman to serve on City Council in its 160-year history, was a Voter-Owned Elections candidate. And now that she’s in City Hall, Amanda answers to voters, not big donors and special interests. If we want to continue to lead the way and keep elections in Portland transparent, accountable and voter-owned, we must vote to protect our reform program in November. Even if it is all the way at the bottom of the ballot, it might just be our most important vote.
To endorse Voter-Owned Elections go to www.commoncause.org/Oregon.
