Election Reform

For our readers in Maryland, this comes from the Public Campaign Action Fund:

So we are now towards the end of this exciting campaign for Clean Elections in Maryland. Maryland lawmakers are in the process of voting this week on the bill that would call for public financing of state House and Senate elections. While we have strong support in the legislature, our coalition partners are still working hard to lobby legislators, a few of whom are still on the fence.

We must commend the volunteers and staff of the coalition that worked on this campaign showing up to phone bank, attending lobby days up in Annapolis, rallies, writing letters to the their local papers, and most importantly taking the time to personally call or email their legislator to support this bill.

With the few days left, you can still take action. Please, if you have not done so already, contact your Senator to tell them you support public financing of elections in Maryland and that they should vote for this bill, SB 546. Tell a friend or family member to do the same. To find out who your Senator is and to contact them, please go here.

[Note: This is an abridged version of an earlier post.]

A little known fact : even though New York has had its fair share of Democratic governors, its state government has been in the clutches of the Republicans for 150 years. The only two times the state government was all blue were in 1932 and 1964. Teddy Roosevelt said once that 'the state Senate is constitutionally Republican'; it's not, but it's been reliably Republican since that party was founded in the 1850s.

It's probably the main reason so many groups have come together to support Craig Johnson.

Another little known detail about the Albany political machine : Incumbency has become the product of anti-democratic redistricting shenanigans.

It is outrageous that NYC, the single
largest demographic in the state, does not have proportional representation in Albany. This is because for years Republicans have been able to pass legislation that favors their districts.

Only in New York would you have majority white and Republican districts inflate their demographics by counting their prison population. This is what The New York Times has to say about the practice [Ending the Prison Windfall — New York Times editorial | Prisoners of the Census]: