DVD Showing on Campaign Finance Reform

Unity of Madison
Social Justice Ministry Advisory Council (SJMAC)

This PBS video is both inspiring and refreshing. It is about reaching out and connecting with your neighbor. It’s about ordinary people like you and me and making a difference. You will hear a nurse in California talk about her support for Proposition 89 - The Clean Money and Fair Elections Act of 2006. She declares that in her fight for campaign finance reform and clean elections she is also fighting for clean air, clean water, fair gas and drug prices and a better educational system for her children.

Sixty five thousand nurses went directly to the heart of the problem in sponsoring and fighting for campaign finance reform in California. They saw this as the first step in trying to restrict the heavy handed role of HMOs, drug and insurance companies and other special interests that have blocked significant healthcare reform in California, including safe RN-to-patient ratio laws and universal health care.

Several states have passed legislation which provides public funding for political campaigns to eliminate the power of corporations and other special interests have over our legislators. The power of money that dictates laws designed to help the special interests and not the people. Money that dictates who can even run for public office!

Following reforms in their states a Democrat in Arizona and a conservative Republican in Connecticut are now using public dollars to run for governor. The film helps the viewer to see that our present way of financing election campaigns is a systemic problem that has to be solved before we can make meaningful progress on a whole host of core human needs including protecting our civil liberties, maintaining a clean and sustainable earth, greater economic justice, health care, education, and most of all, a lasting peace.

Our goal in sponsoring this video and inviting Mike McCabe from the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign to talk with us on January 7th is to raise greater awareness about how Wisconsin presently finances its elections and to begin a discussion of the problem and the need for a solution. We owe it to our grandchildren and future generations to participate in this problem-solving process. We also expect the seven week study program that begins in February; “We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For” will significantly facilitate this dialogue. We hope you will join us.