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+--- Thread: Voter Owned Hawaii - Fair Elections Act is safe (/showthread.php?tid=5592)
Voter Owned Hawaii - Fair Elections Act is safe - Rob Tucker - 05-02-2009
From Voter Owned Hawaii:
It appears as though we've managed to keep Act 244 -- The Big Island Fair Elections Act -- in tact for the 2010 maiden voyage. Senate Bill 884 did not end up raiding any money from the Hawaii Election Campaign Fund, and House Bill 345 (which would have delayed Act 244) has been stopped.
Hawaii's residents had the forward vision to create a public funding option during the 1978 Constitutional Convention. As elections became more expensive, that promise of limiting the corrosive influence of private money on politics, started to fade. The public funding system no longer gave a competitive amount of money to candidates.
Act 244 restores that original vision of a public funding option as it was administered during the '78 Convention. It also restores hope that politics can rise above cynicism and exclusivity and instead invite challenges and engage voters who have been pushed to the margins. In the end, it will give candidates more choices in the way they run their campaigns, and voters more choices in candidates. It will allow for more debate so that we can make more sound, careful, creative, and visionary policy decisions in order to protect Hawaii's environment, economy, health, and future generations.
The House and Senate leadership should be thanked for choosing to allow Act 244 to run, and special thanks should be given to legislators who continue to "go to bat" as champions for Fair Elections. Senator Les Ihara and Representative Della Au Belatti have been especially genuine champions of this effort and have proven to be able to rise above "politics as usual". Similar thanks go to Coucilman Pete Hoffman of the Big Isle County Council.
Also, big thanks are due to the Big Isle organizers who helped protect Act 244. Noelie Rodriguez did amazing work to rally citizens on the Big Island for this effort, as well as volunteers with the League of Women Voters. And of course Voter Owned Hawaii's own board members, and our coalition partners, have been a foundation of support for this effort over the years.
We will continue to stay in touch as we work to sustain and implement the "reform that makes all reforms possible". Now, more than ever, we'll need your help to make sure people understand why the vision of a public funding option is an important one, and why it is a public good.
Thanks again for your continued support! Mahalo.
Voter Owned Hawaii
http://voterownedhawaii.org
457-8622