In order for the American system of representative democracy to work effectively, people must participate. How is the system working now? According to the magazine Mother Jones, the National Republican Congressional Committee has established a program where, for $25,000, you can dine with Republican leaders in Congress. The Democratic National Committee has a similar program, where for $100,000, donors get weekend retreats with party leaders and dinner with the president. Who do you think is buying this political involvement? It isn’t college students.
Support for Ralph Nader’s inclusion in the presidential debates and the popularity of John McCain’s campaign finance reform efforts is evidence that Americans want more voices to be heard in the political process. And a few of the legislative candidates the Emerald interviewed in the past week have mentioned their desire and their efforts to have more citizen involvement.
With that in mind, we look to Measures 92, 98 and 6. Measures 92 and 98 would limit citizen involvement by making it more difficult for specific groups of citizens to be involved in both politics and charities. Measure 6 is a welcome attempt to expand involvement by offering candidates for state offices the choice to limit individual contributions and then receive taxpayer funding for their campaigns.
Measure 92 would amend the Oregon Constitution to prohibit organizations from collecting payroll deductions for political purposes without the employee signing an authorization form every year. This sounds innocuous at first, but upon closer inspection, it hampers the ability of organizations to collect funds and the ability of employees to give funds.
The measure’s supporters say that unions are using employees’ money to further a political agenda against employees’ wishes. This isn’t true. Union members can opt out of political expenditures and pay union dues for only non-political purposes. And if union employees don’t like their organization’s political activities, there are ways to be more involved in the process and have their voices heard. They can go to union meetings, become union leaders, rally support from other employees and fight to change the system. That’s involvement. To stifle involvement would be un-American.
Measure 92 gets onto dangerous ground, as does Measure 98, with charities. First, all employees already have to authorize payroll deductions. No one is taking money without employees’ permission. Organizations such as the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the American Red Cross collect funds through payroll deductions; some charities occasionally lobby legislators on behalf of their causes. Even if the lobbying is a tiny portion of the good work these organizations do, the money is “used for political purposes” and would have to be authorized with a specific form used solely for that purpose every year. Charities don’t have the time to collect permission slips from thousands of employees on a yearly basis. This is why the employee can choose whether to sign up for payroll deduction or not.
Measure 98 takes the silencing of employee voices a step further. This measure would single out public employees and tell them they cannot have money deducted for political purposes because to do so would use the state’s payroll department (and thus taxpayer money) to deduct the funds. So one group of people is denied this avenue of political involvement because of where they work. The state, similar to any other employer, should have the right to allow payroll deductions. State employees should have that right. It’s that simple.
There is a voice of sanity crying out in all of this. Measure 6 offers the chance for more voices to be heard. If candidates for state office voluntarily limit their campaign fundraising to $100 donations from individuals or political action committees, and if they raise enough $5 donations from individuals, then Measure 6 would give them money from a special campaign finance fund that the state has established. The money for the campaign finance fund comes from eliminating the tax deduction that people now use to deduct massive contributions to candidates from their state tax bill.
Measure 6 would limit the influence of big money donors on candidates and require that they raise funds from ordinary citizens — a candidate for governor, for instance, would have to raise 8,000 $5 donations from electors. This demonstrates support and levels the playing field of influence on our politicians.
If a representative democracy is going to work, everyone needs to be represented equally by the elected officials. Measures 92 and 98 work to limit that influence of ordinary citizens. We urge you to vote no on 92 and 98. Measure 6, by contrast, is a novel idea for a system of equal influence and taxpayer-funded campaign finance. We recommend you vote yes on 6.