Read a Pacific Northwest, liberal perspective on world, national, and local politics. From majestic Redmond, Washington - the Northwest Progressive Institute Advocate.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Moneyed interests hijack initiative process

In a report to the Public Disclosure Commission earlier today, staffer Tony Perkins made note of the obscene amount of money that's gone into statewide initiatives this year. Thus far over $10.4 million had been raised, and over $9.1 million spent, to support statewide initiatives this year. Of that, over $6.7 million was spent on signature gathering.

Of course, while this doesn't come as a surprise to us at NPI, Perkins' conclusion should spur all reasonable people into action to stop greed in 2010:
“The citizen initiative was once seen as a remedy for the domination of industry and other powerful interests over the legislative process. Today, contribution and expenditure reports filed with the PDC reveal that these same well‐funded interests—corporations, unions, trade and professional associations—use paid signature gatherers to accomplish their goals.”
One look at our Rogues Gallery, and you'll find those responsible for the hijacking of the process and for the money that has flowed into the extremist right-wing initiatives in Washington this year. Many of these donors aren't even based in our state. In addition, the Political Action Committees that are the beneficiaries of the deep-pocketed interests' largess, are set up with deceptive names, meant to fool voters, such as: Citizens for Responsible Spending (I-1053), Modernize Washington (I-1100), and Save Our Jobs WA (I-1082). Each of these committees represents a corporate power grab.

Clearly, the citizen's initiative no longer is the province of the citizen. Unless, of course, you think like the United States Supreme Court does. As we learned in the Corporations United decision, a majority of our nation's justices equate business interests to citizens in the political process.

It's time we took back our democracy.

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