BOTTOM LINE: Send special interests to the sidelines by voting yes on Clean Elections, Measure 3.
Fight political corruption by voting yes on Measure 3
Anchorage Daily News
"COMPANY VP told COMPANY CEO on two separate occasions that the only leverage COMPANY A (Veco) had to change votes on the 20/20 PPT (Petroleum Production Tax) legislation is through campaign contributions and by hosting fund-raisers."
-- From the federal indictment of state Sen. John Cowdery
When Veco lobbyists weren't bribing Alaska legislators, they tried to buy support with campaign contributions and fundraising. So what if the public wasn't on their side? The Veco lobbyists had something more powerful than public support -- they had big checkbooks, and they used them on campaign contributions to buy friends in Juneau.
Spend enough money on the right people, the lobbyists figured, and it doesn't matter what Alaska citizens want their representatives to do.
Ballot Measure 3 offers Alaskans a way to stop this anti-democratic influence peddling. Measure 3 lets candidates opt out of the hopelessly compromised campaign fundraising game.
Instead, candidates can volunteer to run a Clean Elections campaign for office. By raising a modest amount of seed money in small donations, a candidate who agrees to "run clean" can qualify for a set amount of public campaign funds. The candidate agrees to spend only Clean Elections money on his or her race.
No more catering to campaign fat cats. No more dubious promises to help undeserving but powerful special interests. Clean Elections will put voters back in charge and send big campaign contributors to the sidelines.
Yes, this new system will require giving public money to politicians to run for office. Distasteful as that may be, it's better than business as usual in Alaska politics.
Citizens already pay a stiff price for the inherent, borderline corruption of today's system of campaign contributions -- it's just hidden safely out of sight. Veco lobbyists, for example, parlayed $700,000 of campaign contributions into clout that saved the oil industry $100 million a year when lawmakers rewrote state oil taxes in 2006. Other costs are hidden deep in the capital budget, where well-connected contributors get support for dubious projects.
If citizens of Alaska don't supply clean money to run for office, somebody else will fill the void of campaign cash -- and they'll expect a return on their investment. A citizen with the power of a single vote on election day is no match for a deep-pocketed insider who can funnel campaign cash to favored elected officials.
Passing Measure 3 is the first step toward purging the influence of big money from Alaska state elections. By law, an initiative cannot appropriate the money needed to run the Clean Elections system. Only the Legislature can do that.
A strong vote for Clean Elections will make it harder for the Legislature to withhold the necessary funding. The cost will be about $6 million a year, according to initiative supporters. But ordinary citizens will pay only pennies on the dollar for Clean Elections, since we Alaskans pay no state sales or income tax. As with most of state government, our oil wealth will pay almost all the bill.
Alaskans don't have to wait for the Legislature to come to its senses and pass Clean Elections on its own. Good thing -- it would be a long wait. After all, each of the 60 legislators is the product of the current system. They have little incentive to change the rules of the game and make it easier for others to run for office. From their standpoint, the less competition the better.
That helps explain why, since 2000, the incumbent candidate in Alaska has won at least 93 percent of the time. Such a minuscule turnover rate shows that our system lacks the competition that's needed to make a democracy work.
Clean Elections is not a new concept. It has worked well in Arizona and Maine. It produces more competition on election day, more choice for voters and less sway for special interests.
Tuesday is your chance to say you've had enough of the corruption in Alaska's political system. Vote yes on Measure 3.
BOTTOM LINE: Send special interests to the sidelines by voting yes on Clean Elections, Measure 3.