Mayoral candidates State Rep. Dwight Evans (D), Congressman Chaka Fattah (D), former City Councilman Michael Nutter (D), and Al Taubenberger (R) all signed the "Fair and Clean Elections Pledge" this morning, calling for public financing for city races.
I should say that Dwight Evans gave a strong shout-out to public financing at the Chamber breakfast this morning -- also calling for free ad time on TV for candidates.
Twenty-five other candidates for city office also signed the pledge. Want to see if your gal or guy did? Check it out here.
The pledge was created by Common Cause Pennsylvania, MoveOn.org Political Action, Philadelphia Forward, and Public Campaign Action Fund -- and released on Young Philly Politics.
From the press release:
“We have already taken a strong step towards making our elections cleaner and fairer,” Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg of YoungPhillyPolitics.com said. “But now it is time to finish the job, and make Philly a model for cities for others to follow. Do we really want New York, with its partial public financing law, to have a fairer system for their elections than ours? We can do better than that.”
PS: If you are interested in the mayoral candidates' positions on other ethical issues, check out their responses to the Committee of Seventy's Ethics Agenda.
Comments (4)
So it looks like Brady and Knox didn't sign the pledge. Why doesn't that surprise me.
Posted by Anonymous | May 3, 2007 1:26 PM
You know it's bad when even the republican out-classes you.
Posted by Anonymous | May 3, 2007 1:28 PM
Apparently, Knox is yet to sign on. I guess he thinks that if elections were publicly financed, other candidates might have comparable cash flows and he would loose out on his millionaire's advantage. If Knox really wants to show he is for better elections- he should sign this pledge- and fast.
Posted by Liz | May 3, 2007 3:54 PM
This is great news...and so appropriate it should happen in the birthplace of our republic.
Albequerque, NM and Portland, OR already have full public financing of elections as do Arizona and Maine for their statewide elections. Many other cities and voters across the country are beginning to see the light: "he who pays the piper, calls the tune."
Even Congress is beginning to wake up. In a bi-partisan move, Senators Arlen Specter and Dick Durbin have introduced public financing legislation in the Senate: the "Fair Elections Now Act." And Representative John Tierney of Massachusetts has done likewise in the House.
It's about time our elected officials were accountable to us instead of big money donors, and that elections were about who has the best ideas instead of who has the most money.
We should all start calling and writing our representatives and letting them know we're behind them. As many have noted, "democracy begins with us." (for additional non-partisan info see www.publicampaign.org or www.just6dollars.org or www.CAclean.org)
Posted by Craig Dunkerley | May 4, 2007 2:38 PM