Ballot initiative would ban corporate donations in D.C. political campaigns
Ballot initiative would ban corporate donations in D.C. political campaigns
By Mike DeBonis, Tuesday, January 17, 9:04 PM
Corporate contributions to D.C. political funds would be banned for the first time if a ballot initiative proposed by a group of city activists succeeds.
Bryan Weaver, a former D.C. Council candidate and advisory neighborhood commissioner in Adams Morgan, and Sylvia Brown, an advisory neighborhood commissioner in Deanwood, filed papers Tuesday on behalf of the “D.C. Committee to Restore Public Trust” to begin the initiative process.
The effect of the proposal — should the organizers gather enough petition signatures to put it on the November ballot and a majority of voters approve it — would be to make the District’s campaign finance system more like the federal government’s.
Brown said that the initiative was born out of frustration that an ethics bill recently passed by the D.C. Council did not do enough to restrain corporate influence on elected officials. “This is an opportunity for civic engagement to come into play,” she said.
More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/ballot-initiative-would-ban-corporate-donations-in-dc-political-campaigns/2012/01/17/gIQAISPu6P_story.html
