Here in Massachusetts, the "new" camapign finance law (passed by ballot initiative two years ago) was immediately gutted by state legislators, who rightly feared a challenge to their power. A model corporate tax reporting initiative was likewise gutted some years back, as has been every substantive ballot initiative with a progressive slant that has been passed in the state.
Meanwhile, an irresponsible income tax cut passed on November 7 (defeated in urban metro Boston districts, but pushed through by the Republican governor and hundreds of thousands in last-minute corporate bribes, er, contributions, from companies with lucrative ties to the state) and will be immediately implemented as "the people having spoken..."
In Massachusetts, definitely, and it seems in many other states (Californians? feel free to chime in) that the populist-inspired ballot initiative process has been hijacked by deep-pocketed corporate interests, with the result that every election year activists must waste valuable time and resources trying to defeat the latest reactionary measure, just to hold things at the awful status quo.
Sure, I feel happy for those people in Maine, Vermont, and Arizona...
Who was that "long-shot candidate" in Arizona, anyway?
----Original Message Follows---- From: "Nathan Newman" <nathan at newman.org> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com To: <Undisclosed-Recipient:@s6.mailbank.com;> Subject: Good News on Public Financing Campaigns Date: Sat, 18 Nov 2000 22:53:56 -0500
FROM NY TIMES:
November 19, 2000 Publicly Paid Elections Put to the Test in 3 States By CAREY GOLDBERG
BOSTON, Nov. 18 - In Arizona, a long-shot candidate beat the speaker of the... _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.
Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com.