[Chat] Annapolis Action Alert: Sen. Joan Carter Conway & Clean Money Campaign Finance Reform

[WeinsteinM at aol.com]

 Annapolis Action Alert

Clean Money Campaign Finance Reform
HB 731/SB 546
Lead Sponsors: Del. Jon Cardin and Sen. Paul Pinsky

Dear Friends,

Just two and a half months ago, on January 4, 2007, State Senator Joan Carter 
Conway met with a group of about 30 constituents and others at the NAACP 
headquarters on 26th Street and committed to support Clean Money Campaign Finance 
Reform.   She promised that she would personally cosponsor the bill and that 
it would receive a timely vote in her committee this session.   We were 
delighted and grateful for her strong commitment of support, especially given her 
powerful position as chair of the EHEA Committee and also considering the 
well-known opposition of the Senate President, Thomas V. Mike Miller.   And, indeed, 
she has cosponsored the bill and held the bill hearing early in the session, 
on February 22nd.   

But this week, with just over three weeks left in the session, Senator Conway 
has told us that she will not bring up the bill for a vote because of Mike 
Miller's opposition.   NOW IS THE TIME FOR SEN. CONWAY TO HEAR FROM CONSTITUENTS 
THAT WE ASK HER TO KEEP HER PROMISE AND HOLD A VOTE ON THE BILL.

We believe that we have the votes to pass the bill out of Sen. Conway's EHEA 
committee.   This is the same bill that passed this committee as well as the 
full House of Delegates last year.   

By way of background, this is the legislation that will make Maryland the 
fourth state to enact this cutting-edge solution to the problem of private 
campaign contributors accruing undue influence in politics and policy-making.  The 
status quo undermines the very foundations of democracy.   This kind of 
campaign finance reform -- voluntary public financing for qualified, viable 
candidates -- makes available a stream of funding that comes with none of the strings 
that inevitably accompany large private donations, and does it in a way that 
passes constitutional muster under the Supreme Court's 1976 Buckley v. Vallejo 
decision.  To read more, please visit www.publiccampaign.org.   

You can read the Baltimore Sun's editorial on the bill at 
www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-ed.reform14feb14,0,3311395.story?coll=bal-opinion-headlines,
 and you can read the report of the state study commission that recommended 
the bill at http://mlis.state.md.us/other/campaign_financing.pdf.   The General 
Assembly's fiscal and policy note on the bill is available at 
http://mlis.state.md.us/2007RS/fnotes/bil_0006/sb0546.pdf.   

Now is the time to take action and make your voice heard! 

Please send an e-mail today to Senator Conway at 
joan.carter.conway at senate.state.md.us, or call 410-841-3145 (I am told that phone calls get more attention 
at this late stage of the session).   Ask her to keep her promise and bring 
SB546 out of her committee now.   These calls and e-mails are critical -- they 
will allow Senator Conway to tell the Senate President that pressure from her 
district requires her to go ahead and hold a vote in spite of his opposition.  
 

Please forward this e-mail to other 43rd District constituents, neighborhood 
e-mail lists, and others who you think will take action to advance this 
reform.   

The coalition supporting this legislation is made up of a broad range of 
organizations including Common Cause, the League of Women Voters, Progressive 
Maryland, NAACP, AFL-CIO, Sierra Club, PIRG, and the Baltimore Jewish Council.  
Thank you for adding your critically needed voice to theirs!  

Matthew Weinstein  


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