RSS

Seattle’s Next Big Thing

iGNORANCE IS NO EXC-- USEWhat Comes After Legal Pot and The $15 Minimum wage?  pre-K, parks district?  High speed internet? Bike Racks?

Public-Campaign Financing

Watching the disaster that is ungovernable Olympia  and Washington DC,  to get things done attitude in Seattle is amazing!

Led by  Mike O’Brien , the Seattle   Council members on the Seattle city council   preparing initiative  for public  financing  of candidates for city office.

A similar initiative failed last year,   with only 46 percent of the vote .  s Since t time, however,  Seattle has changed Council elections to represent  individual districts  within the city.    Of course the next Council election will be local .    As a result,   the costs of campaigns within a district will be much less than citywide.  this means that  a public financing  budget  could be very much within the range  of “doable.”

Councilman O’Brien explained,  “This current Supreme Court is taking any number of steps to erode any regulations establishing campaign finance restrictions,”  “One of the concerns is that the Supreme Court would ban restrictions on contributions, period …”   However, at least as I read  the legal commentary  on the bizarre decision of the Supreme Court ,  their ruling  was based on the idea  that restrictions  on spending  could only be made  if there were  evidence for corruption  in the political process .

so the trick with a public financing law  in Seattle’s co Council elections it may be writing a lot  that would still allow  contributions  but would make those either embarrassing  or sufficiently difficult  to create a real concern  about  corruption .   For example,  the SCOT decision was justified by the claim that the government presented no evidence  that large expenditures of money  corrupted the political process .    Seattle’s law  might be written  to avert such corruption  since the cost of the Council election  is sufficiently small  and since we have more than a few people with enough money  to buy  such an election.  In other words,  the law  might be writtsoldas a public financing law  but as a law against the purchase of an election .

he measure, O’Brien says, could be on the ballot as soon as this coming October.


Comments are closed.