TCAN

The Good

Responding to widespread voter anger over dozens of lawmakers involved in corruption scandals, the House of Representatives this week overwhelmingly passed the most sweeping ethics overhaul in more than three decades.

Approved this week by a vote of 411-8, the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act mainly aims to curb the huge influence that lobbyists have on legislators, a much publicized issue highlighted by recent scandals in which a prominent lobbyist (Jack Abramoff) and two congressmen (Randy “Duke” Cunningham [R-California] and Bob Ney [R-Ohio]) were sent to prison on corruption charges.
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The New York Times published an editorial this morning calling for Congress to pass crucial electoral reform before their August recess, specifically HR 811 which would mandate a voter-verified permanent paper record or hard copy of a voter’s ballot that would serve as the official ballot of record. I couldn’t agree more. Why is this important to Texas?
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Would it surprise you to hear that there’s a single legislative reform that will set us on course to solve our health care, school funding, energy, and environmental problems?

If so, you haven’t heard about Clean Elections.

Clean Elections, an opt-in system of publicly funded campaigns, is a way for average citizens to run for office without having to romance a bunch of Big Money donors. Let’s review a few facts about conventional campaigns:

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[This is the third installment in our interns’ chronicles of their adventures interviewing members of the public as well as elected officials about government and the relationships between voters and those elected to represent them. The interviews are part of our developing Participatory Democracy civic education program.]

Throughout this summer, we (Punam and Jonathan) have been helping create the Participatory Democracy program, which explains our government as, among other things, an easily accessible system. We have found this description to be both true on some levels and false in others.

During our Man and Woman on the Street interviews, many people voiced their beliefs that government and politicians do not care about what individuals think. They feel isolated, withdrawn, and detached from the system. So we went to the source itself to ask staffers and legislators how they felt about the general public. Do legislators care? Do they hear you? Do they provide access?

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Gov. Rick Perry recently appointed a new Secretary of State to replace former SOS Roger Williams, who had resigned to “pursue other opportunities.” Phil Wilson, a former deputy chief of staff to the governor, took office at the beginning of this month, after assuring Sen. Kirk Watson (D-Austin) that, as the state’s top elections official, he would not take a position on the partisan voter-roadblock proposals that TCAN and other pro-voter activists successfully fought during the recent state legislative session.
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[From time to time our blog features diverse voices in addition to our regular contributors from the TCAN staff and board. This one comes from TCAN intern Punam Kaji, a Plan II and Government major with a minor in Business at the University of Texas at Austin.]

For the past five weeks, my fellow intern Jonathan and I have been developing TCAN’s Civic Education program. From flashy PowerPoint presentations, to engaging clips from popular cartoons, to real-life stories from our own citizen advocacy experiences, this program aims to raise the civic consciousness of the average person.

Our nonpartisan program, which we call “Participatory Democracy,” will teach individuals how to engage in the political process on their own terms, whether that be through lobbying, writing letters, following legislation, volunteering for a candidate’s campaign, or joining a politically active nonpartisan organization such as TCAN. This program will not only teach but also inspire by showing individuals the influence of politics on their daily lives as well as the way individuals can directly influence their government.

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We recently met with CE enthusiasts from Dallas who have spoken with a number of CE advocates across the country. Along with the contacts TCAN has made, we should soon have a pretty good idea of what has worked and what hasn’t worked.

We’ll be working with this group and others as we build our superb grassroots network of supporters who have a passion for CE and know city and county leaders in their locales. This growing network will also include organizers, CE presenters, and house party hosts.

We are going to kick butt with this campaign.

[From time to time our blog features diverse voices in addition to our regular contributors from the TCAN staff and board. This one comes from TCAN intern Jonathan Panzer, a senior at the University of Texas at Austin majoring in government and history.]

Those of you who know me know that I’m a gamer at heart. Ever since I was a young lad I have loved video and computer games as a way to relax and live out fantasies of my own. It was a way for me to engage the world in a manner that I might never have the opportunity to in reality. My tastes have changed over the years, going from Mega Man and Mario Brothers on the Nintendo to the more modern games on the latest systems and computers. But recently my tastes have developed to where all of the games I play now have either a historical theme or a practical political orientation. I want to see the world that I live in and what would happen if I were to have the power to grab hold of the world and change it to my liking (yes, I realize that that is a little megalomaniacal, but it’s my post, so :p ).

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Watch the Senate debate here.

This will be a great place to learn the sound bites we can expect in Texas as our own Clean Elections campaign gets traction.

Clean Elections is a way to run without having to court corporate interests. Candidates qualify by getting a reasonable number of small donations. Once qualified, they get public money to run their campaign. And they’re not allowed to raise private money after that.

In states that have this measure, it is wildly popular, but corporate interests see it as theft of their private property.
New Mexico just passed Clean Elections for judicial races. Arizona, Maine and a number of municipalities already have CE.

TCAN is promoting it in Texas. Right now, we’re building a statewide network of activists. We have publicity plans that include at least one Air America broadcast.

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin is promoting a “Fair Elections” measure in the Senate. Rep. John Tierney (D-MA) has filed a companion bill that applies to House races. You can read Sen. Durbin’s blog posts on this subject here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/6/13/135538/117

http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/6/13/135515/254

Where are YOU on this issue?

Talk to us at info@truecourageaction.net.

Thanks in large part to YOUR actions, we can count some real victories during this legislative session. No, we didn’t get all the things we hoped and worked for in the areas of ethics reform, campaign finance reform, redistricting reform, and election reform, but we got considerably more than almost anyone expected. Most importantly, we played a significant role in blocking some very bad legislation that could have disenfranchised many thousands of voters.

Legislation TCAN Actively Supported That PASSED Both Houses:

HB 343 (Rep. Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin)
Clearing voter rolls of deceased individuals

HB 770 (Rep. Dutton, D-Houston)
Requiring the Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice to provide written notification to discharged prisoners regarding voting eligibility and to provide them with voter registration applications [Passed both houses but Gov. Perry VETOED!]

HB 2489 (Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler)
Requiring more specific reporting of lobbyist compensation

HB 2823 (Rep. Dwayne Bohac, R-Houston)
Authorizing voters who applied to vote early by mail but did not do so to cast provisional ballots and cancel their mail ballot application in person at the polling place

HB 3066 (Rep. Vicki Truitt, R-Keller)
Prohibiting legislators from using campaign funds to pay rent for property of their spouses

HJR 19 (Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas)
Proposing a constitutional amendment to require each house of the legislature to take a record vote on final passage of any nonceremonial bill (other than certain local bills) or resolution and to publish the record vote on the Internet

SB 64 (Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo)
Requiring general purpose political action committees (GPACs) to report contributions just as candidates and their campaign committees must report them; providing a civil penalty for noncompliance

SB 129 (Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas)
Requiring that the value of gifts of cash or cash equivalent to public officials be reported to the Texas Ethics Commission

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