For Immediate Release:
November 8, 2004
For More Information Contact:
Carole Barasch, AARP, 512-480-2436
Maxine Barkan, LWV, 512-231-8536
Diverse Coalition of Organizations To Push Four Bipartisan Political Reforms in Coming Legislative Session
On First Day of Bill Filing, Legislators Join Groups to
Announce Sponsorship of Key Reform Measures
Austin: A diverse coalition of Texas citizen organizations today unveiled a statewide effort to push for the adoption of four fundamental political reforms. The citizen groups say the reforms are needed to strengthen Texas’ campaign finance laws and require better disclosure of legislative voting records. The organizations were joined by Rep. Craig Eiland (D-Galveston) who announced he will file legislation supported by the coalition. Other lawmakers, including Senators John Carona (R-Dallas) and Juan Hinojosa (D-McAllen), and Rep.Todd Smith (R-Euless) announced they will also sponsor measures supported by the groups.
"The voices of average Texans are being drowned out by an unprecedented flood of special interest money and corporate influence," said Gus Cardenas, AARP State President and spokesperson for the groups. "Texas needs to return to representative government. These reforms will work to guarantee every Texan’s voice is heard in the voting booth and at the legislature."
The citizen organizations are pushing four priority, non-partisan reforms that will:
1) Close the corporate and union money loopholes;
2) Establish reasonable limits on campaign contributions;
3) Improve the effectiveness and independence of the Texas Ethics Commission; and,
4) Require legislators to record all non-ceremonial legislative votes.
Leaders of a number of ideologically diverse organizations have been meeting for a number of months to develop policy priorities for fundamental reform. Organizers expect that more than 100 Texas citizen groups will endorse the reform package and participate in grassroots efforts to push it through the legislature.
"Texas’ 100-year old prohibition on corporate contributions is being circumvented,” said Rep. Craig Eiland. "We intend to rebuild and strengthen the wall between corporate money and political campaigns. We want to make clear what is and is not allowable so that corporations know what money they can give, PACS know exactly what they can spend corporate money for and legislators know what money they can accept, all without anyone getting into trouble or being accused of doing anything wrong."
Eiland will sponsor legislation to ban the use of corporate and union money for pseudo-issue ads in the closing days of a Texas election. Eiland’s reform bill mirrors the McCain-Feingold legislation enacted by the Congress to regulate corporate and union spending in federal elections. Eiland’s bill will clarify allowable administrative expenditures for corporate and union-sponsored PACs. It will ban a corporation or union from paying the administrative expenses of a PAC for which it is not the sole sponsor.
Rep. Todd Smith announced he will join Rep. Eiland is sponsoring legislation to tighten restrictions on corporate spending. Smith also announced his support for reasonable limits on campaign contributions.
"Campaign finance reform isn’t a Republican issue and it isn’t a Democratic issue; it is a "people" issue that ensures that our political system responds to the public and has their faith," said Rep. Smith in a prepared statement. "Campaign reform is important to Texas and I am going to work with these groups to bring it to Texas."
Senator Carona announced that he will again sponsor a constitutional amendment requiring all non-ceremonial votes in the legislature to be recorded and available to the public. A bipartisan group of six other Senators have announced their support for Carona’s legislation. Recording legislative votes is supported by a long list of organizations, individuals and newspapers.
"Political reform is not a partisan issue," said Darlene Hicks, President of the League of Women Voters of Texas, one of the organizations supporting the four-point reform package. "Our reforms don’t favor or penalize any political party. These reforms benefit the vast majority of Texans regardless of their political persuasion."
The coalition of groups plans to sponsor a number of regional summits around the state to both educate and recruit new participants in the reform campaign. The groups intend to build a formidable statewide grassroots lobby network to help push their reform agenda. Regional summits are scheduled for December 1st in San Antonio and December 10th in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. A Houston summit will take place in January.
"We are committed to reaching out to all our constituencies," said AARP’s Cardenas. “Texans understand their voices are not being heard over the voices of big money and high-paid lobbyists. We intend to show them that something can be done about it."
Citizens who want to find out more or participate in grassroots activities in support of the reform agenda can visit Clean Up Texas Politics web site at:
http://www.cleanuptexaspolitics.org/Organizational representatives speaking at today’s announcement include:
Gus Cardenas, AARP, Texas State President
Sondra Epstein, Memorial West Republican Women
Patricia Ross, American Association of University Women (AAUW), Texas
Mohamed Elibiary, Texas IMPACT
Malinda Gaul, Chair, Texas Women’s Legislative Days
Maxine Barkan, League of Women Voters of Texas
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We're off to take back our Texas Democracy. I especially like point #4 where all votes will be recorded. We need to be able to hold our Texas Representatives and Senators accountable for their votes.
Please do write you individual state reps and senators telling them you support this reform.
Sonia
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