Give Ordinary Voters A Voice
Originally published in the Chicago Sun-Times
The super rich and large special interests are drowning out the voices of the everyday citizens through big money campaign contributions. The Koch Brothers recently announced that they are committed to spending $889 million in the 2016 elections. That’s over twice the amount that the Republican and Democratic National Committees spent combined.
The voices of people like you and me who care about education, health care, crime, immigration, and other vital issues facing our city are being drowned out by big money.
In the Chicago Mayor race, contributions greater than $1000 account for more than 86% of the money contributed to the five Chicago mayoral candidates, while less than 2% of the money contributed comes from contributions less than $150.
In response, Common Cause Illinois created the Fair Elections campaign to create a small donor match campaign finance system for the City of Chicago, similar to the New York City system.
I urge everyone in Chicago to vote “YES” to our ballot question on February 24 that reads:
“Should the City of Chicago or the State of Illinois reduce the influence of special interest money in elections by financing campaigns using small contributions from individuals and a limited amount of public funds?”
Let’s take back our democracy, together.