Dear Friend,
With the Fall
Veto Session starting tomorrow, I wanted to provide you with an update on
campaign finance reform legislation and seek your advice on how to maximize our
reform efforts.
Illinois
continues to struggle to enact campaign finance reform legislation that will
reduce the destructive, controlling special interests in Springfield even
though other states have models we could follow. Much of this Veto Session will be spent improving
the campaign finance legislation that Governor Quinn recently vetoed.
The good news
is that the negotiations for a Bill begin at a better point than the
legislation we passed last Spring. It
provides limits on what individuals and special interests can contribute to a
campaign, and does not have a proliferation of political action committees that
existed in the previous bill. I voted
for the campaign reform package last Spring - although I had a stronger
campaign finance bill that I preferred - based on the belief that we needed to
pass some campaign finance structure to keep this issue alive (Illinois is one
of 4 states that has no limits of any kind in place).
The sticking point now is that there is no
limit on what leaders and political parties can contribute to candidates. This outcome consolidates power among a few
leaders in an environment where our leaders already have a great deal of
authority.
My goal is to achieve the strongest campaign
ethics legislation possible including much greater limits on what leadership
can give to their members.
I have three
basic choices:
- Encourage negotiations and support the
best result with or without leader limits.
-
Only vote for the Bill if it includes
meaningful limits on leadership transfers.
-
Only support the Bill if reform groups
endorse it.
I welcome and
appreciate your views and suggestions about this critical issue.
Heather
|
