Yoon, Council Take Up Campaign Finance Reform
Hearing Examines Donation Limits for City Vendors, Employees
April 9, 2009
BOSTON – Councilor-at-Large Sam Yoon initiated a hearing today on campaign finance reform in the Boston City Hall Chambers. The hearing was convened by the Committee on Government Operations, which invited expert witnesses to testify about making municipal elections more competitive through changes to the City;s election laws.
“Boston is a city with over 300,000 registered voters, but only 46,000 turned out for the last city election,” said Yoon. “We need more competitive elections, and we need to limit the excessive power of incumbency. Campaign finance reform has dramatically increased competition in other cities, and we can do it here in Boston.”
Testifying before the committee, Pam Wilmot, Executive Director of Common Cause, said there are a variety of significant reforms that Boston could adopt to foster fair and competitive elections.
“Public financing is the gold standard of reform, but there are other things we can do to change the system like limiting or banning contributions by contractors who do business with the city and not allowing incumbents to roll over their campaign funds from cycle to cycle,” said Wilmot. “This hearing shows a level of seriousness and commitment to the issues that I think voters will applaud.”
Dan Weeks, President of Americans for Campaign Reform, was instrumental in successful campaigns to enact New England’s first municipal public funding ordinance for New Haven’s mayoral elections. He recommended campaign finance reform as a way to reduce influence of powerful special interests.
“The pay to play system is deeply engrained,” said Weeks. “I want to stress the importance of addressing the source of the donations.”
For some witnesses, the ultimate goal remains public financing of campaigns. Through written testimony, John Bonifaz, legal director for Voter Action, strongly urged the city to adopt public financing for municipal elections.
“The question of how we finance our public elections is a core question for our democracy,”said Bonifaz. “In a democracy, public elections should be publicly financed. The promise of political equality for all demands no less.”
Also testifying at the hearing were David Ortiz from Mass Vote, and Brenda Wright, legal director at Demos.
