The good people at CCMC have been working to ensure the passage of AB 583, the California Clean Money and Fair Elections Act (Hancock, D-East Bay.) They had some good news on Friday when the bill was voted out of the State Senate Appropriations Committee on a 9-6 vote. Here are excerpts from a recent Press Release. Congratulations!

AB 583 would establish a voluntary full public financing system for Secretary of State candidates modeled after the systems that have been working in Arizona and Maine for eight years. AB 583 has now been amended to be funded by voluntary contributions designated on state tax returns and by a registration fee of $350 a year on lobbyists, lobbying firms, and lobbyist employers, the same as in Illinois. Currently lobbyists only pay $25 every two years in California, one of the lowest rates in the country.

Connecticut’s legislature passed a Clean Money bill in 2006 that is so popular that 215 out of 225 candidates have indicated they will use it. Arizona and Maine started public-financing state elections 8 years ago. North Carolina, New Mexico, and New Jersey all have Clean Money pilot programs. Speaking after the Committee vote, Assemblymember Hancock said, “It has been a long and hard road, but I am deeply pleased that AB 583 is now moving to the Senate Floor. This reform is a critical step to helping restore the voters’ confidence in government and I trust that the rest of my colleagues in the Senate will recognize its necessity.”

“Secretary of State candidates, like all other candidates, have to spend huge amounts of time raising money for their campaigns from private contributors,” said Julie Rajan, Executive Director of the California Clean Money Campaign, the sponsor of the bill. “Californians would have more faith in their government if candidates could instead spend more time reaching out to voters and discussing issues that matter to them.”

AB 583 is supported by a wide range of organizations, from good government groups like the League of Women Voters of California, California Common Cause, and CALPIRG to groups representing diverse Californian interests such as Sierra Club California, the Consumer Federation of California, the Equal Justice Society, the California Nurses Association, and Gray Panthers California. Over 80 regular voters from as far as Orange County drove to Sacramento testify at the hearing on Monday.