On Eve of Citizens United Anniversary, New Yorkers Call for Public Financing to Return Elections to the 99%
Albany, NY – Saturday, January 21, 2012 is the second anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC. The decision allowed for unlimited corporate cash to be spent on political campaigns, effectively allowing the wealthiest to buy elections. Karen Scharff, Executive Director of Citizen Action of New York, said:
The Citizens United court decision hijacked elections from the public, giving those who run huge corporations a license to buy off candidates in an effort to win policies that serve their greed. While we can’t take away CEO campaign contributors’ ability to spend their profits on our elections, we can take a bold action to limit the influence that big donations have.
Through a voluntary system of small donations with public matching funds, public financing of elections creates elections where candidates are no longer forced to rely on deep-pocket donors.
Governor Cuomo’s leadership in support of public financing of elections marks the first concrete proposal in the nation for election reform to curb the massive influence that corporations gained over our government through Citizens United. With overwhelming support from majority of New Yorkers (as shown in the latest Siena poll), the Assembly’s leadership in passing public financing of elections for decades, and now the support of a powerful Governor, the movement for reform is gaining strong momentum.
2012 must be the year that New York takes a stand against CEO campaign cash in campaigns, and returns our elections to the 99%.
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