FLAG BANNER: Committee for Democracy
DEDICATED TO RIDDING POLITICAL BRIBERY FROM THE CENTER OF CALIFORNIA POLITICS
Home   The Database   The Archives    Link Clusters    Why   Contact
HOW?

The Initiative

HOME

 

THE POLITICAL REFORM INITIATIVE OF 2009

 

Prologue: The General Principals

1. Initiative.

  1. This Initiative shall be known and may be cited as the “Political Reform Initiative of 2009.”

2. Findings and Declarations.

The people of California find and declare as follows:

  1. The representatives elected to conduct our state and local government cannot be trusted to serve the needs and respond to the wishes of their constituents when outside interests finance their campaigns;

  2. As the costs of conducting election campaigns have increased greatly in recent years, and candidates have been forced to finance their campaigns by seeking large contributions from lobbyists and organizations, the local voter's influence, and their interests, have been negated. The local voters can no longer be assured the governmental decisions their representatives take will represent their interests or general welfare;

  3. Lobbyists often make their contributions to incumbents, who cannot be effectively challenged because these outside contributions give the recipient an unfair advantage over competition, reducing local voter's contributions, and their interests, to a status secondary to the outside contributiors.

  4. That wealthy individuals and organizations, which have no franchise rights in local elections, make large campaign contributions, and frequently extend their influence by employing lobbyists and spending large amounts to influence legislative and administrative actions by funding lobbyists’ campaign contributions. This appears to have rendered the democratic link between the voter and their elected representatives secondary to the financial links between the politician and their outside contributors. These contributions have shaken the faith of California's voters that their government represents the interests of the local voters;

  5. Previous laws regulating political contributions have proven insufficient to balance the voter’s democratic rights with the rights of non-voters to assemble, speak freely, and petition their government.

 

3. Purpose of Initiative.

The people enact this initiative to accomplish the following purposes:

  1. To restrict the participation of lobbyists, special interests, and other non-voting entities in elections to their due free Speech, assembly, and petitions rights by preventing their contributions from exceeding the local voter’s local franchise right to democratically select their own candidates, and elect their own representatives.

  2. To prevent financial support for candidates or officeholders by individuals not qualified to vote in the election from exercising greater influence on election outcomes than the contributions of the local voters in their elections.

  3. To abolish contributions from non-voters which unfairly favor incumbents in order that elections be decided by the local voters, rather than contributions from non-voting outside interests.

  4. To prevent public officials from appearing and behaving corruptly in the electoral and legislative processes.

  5. To provide adequate enforcement mechanisms to public officials and private citizens in order that this initiative will be vigorously enforced.

 

The Main points of the Political Reform Act of 2009:

The First Point:

There will be no individual or group contributions to political candidates or officeholders from any source other than individuals qualified and registered to vote in the election for that office, except as specified in the second point.

The Second Point:

Qualified political parties may contribute to the support of their state candidates. The contributions of qualified political parties to their candidates for office, or sitting officeholders, shall not exceed 30% of the contributions the candidates collect from individuals qualified to vote in the election for that office.

The Third Point:

Candidates and officeholders in California may not accept any gifts, of any type, from any sources, except from individuals qualified and registered to vote in the election for their office, and under the limits specified in California election law.

The Fourth Point:

The maximum individual contribution to any political party in California is five thousand dollars ($5000.) per year.

The Fifth Point:

Political action groups are encouraged to assemble freely, speak freely to the public, and advance their beliefs by petitioning any or all of our representatives. This initiative seeks to rebalance these rights of non-voting individuals and groups with the fundamental franchise right of the local voter to be assured that the candidates they select and the representatives they elect actally representative their interests.

Therefore non-voters are prohibited from contributing any material aid or remuneration to any candidate or officeholder in California, except as specified above.



TEXT. THE POLITICAL REFORM INITIATIVE OF 2009:

(The changes in the laws below are changes in the Political Reform Act. The full text of the Political Reform Act may be accessed at: http://www.fppc.ca.gov/index.html?id=51. This is a rather large PDF file. This is the full text of California's campaign finance laws. The changes below attempt to be an index of the regulations on the sources of contribution. Every effort was made to conform the text of the initiative to change the law to voter-only sourced contributions.)

This initiative is designed to change the legal definition of contributors from “persons” to “People qualified and registered to vote in the election of the candidates to which they contribute.” The goal is to prohibit all outside contributions to political candidates, except from voters qualified and registered to vote in the election for that office, while simultanously maintaining political party contributions, but limiting political party contributions to one-third of the total of qualified voter's contributions.

In pursuit of this goal, the reform Initiative of 2009 makes the following changes to California Elections Codes. Bold underlined sections are the changes the Initiative makes to the Codes.

 

Chapter 5. Limitations on Contributions. Article 3. Contribution Limitations.

85301. Limits on Contributions from Persons.

85301. (a) Shall now read:

A person, qualified to vote in the election for that office, other than a political party committee, may not make to any candidate for elective state office other than a candidate for statewide elective office, and a candidate for elective state office other than a candidate for statewide elective office may not accept from a person, any contribution totaling more than three thousand dollars (3,000) per election.

85301. (b) Shall now read:

Except to a candidate for governor, a person qualified to vote in the election for that office, other than a political party committee, may not make to any candidate for statewide elective office, and except a candidate for Governor,…(the text continues unmodified to the end of the paragraph.)

85301. (c) Shall now read:

A person, qualified to vote in the election for that office, other than a small political party committee may not make to any candidate for Governor, and a candidate for governor may not accept from any person other than a small contributor committee or political party committee, and contribution totaling more than seven thousand five hundred dollars ($7,500) per election.

 

85302. Limits on Contributions from Small Contributor Committees.

85302. (a) Shall now read:

A small contributor committee may not make any contributions to any candidates for elective state office. Small contributor committees are restricted to issue advocacy.

85302. (b) is deleted.

85302. (c) is deleted.

 

85303. Limits on Contributions to Committees and Political Parties.

85303. (b) Shall now read:

A person may not make to any politicaly party committee, and a political party committee may not accept, and contribution totaling more than five thousand dollars ($5,000) per calendar year for the purpose of making contributions for the support or defeat of candidates for elective state office. Political parties may contribute, and candidates may receive, no more than 30% of the candidate's total contributions received from qualified voters in the election. Notwithstanding Section 85312, this limit applies to contributions made to a political party used for the purpose of making expenditures at the behest of a candidate for elective state office for communications to party members related to the candidate's candidacy for elective state office

 

Chapter 5. Limitations on Contributions. Article 7. Additional Contribution Requirements.

85702. Contributions from lobbyists.

85702. Shall now read:

An elected state officer or candidate for elected state office may not accept a contribution from a lobbyist, and a lobbyist may not make a contribution to an elected state officer or candidate for elected state office. (A period is added here and the rest of the paragraph is deleted.).

 

Chapter 9.5. Ethics. Article 2. Gifts.

89503. Gift Limits.

89503. (a) Shall now read:

No elected state officer, elected officer of a local government agency, or other individual specified in Section 87200 shall accept gifts from any source other than persons qualified to vote in the election for that office they hold, and shall not accept gifts from any single source in any calendar year with a total value of more than two hundred fifty dollars ($250).

89503. (b) Shall now read:

(b)(1) No candidate for elective state office, for judicial office, or for elective office in a local government agency shall accept gifts from any source other than persons qualified to vote in the election for that office, and any single source in any calendar year with a total value of more than two hundred fifty dollars ($250). (The text continues unmodified to the end of the paragraph.).

89503. (c) Shall now read:

No member of a state board or commission or designated employee of a state or local government agency shall accept gifts from any (single) source in any calendar year with a total value of more than two hundred fifty ($250) if the member or employee would be required to report the receipt of income or gifts from that source on his or her statement of economic interests. (The highlighted text is deleted from the original text.)

Chapter 9.5. Ethics. Article 4. Campaign Funds.

89510. Acceptable Contributions.

89510. (c) This section, section (c) is an addition, and Shall read:

A candidate for elective state office may only accept contributions from people qualified to vote in the election for that office. Only voters registered and qualified to vote in an election may contribute to candidates in that election.

 

WHY THIS INITIATIVE MUST BE MADE LAW.

 

WHAT DO YOU THINK? CONTACT US NOW!

ALEXWIERBINSKI@COMMITTEEFORDEMOCRACY.ORG



WHY

THE PLAN

IMPORTANT DATES
ALL ARCHIVES
CORRUPTION UPDATES
Corruption Database
Database Terms

WHO WE ARE

CONTACT US

LINKS