Support for Choice 1

[Karyn Gill <KarynGill@aol.com>]

I am currently a member of a County task force charged with 
review and reform of our local campaign finance ordinance.  What 
I am finding is that members of the task force only volunteered 
to be on the task force because they have a financial 
self-interest in "reforming" the ordinance--they are either major 
fund-raisers for both parties, incumbent politicians, or, in one 
case, the chair of the County's major political party.  Their 
first order of business was to raise the campaign contribution 
limits.  There was a huge fight over what was a "reasonable" 
limit --$250, $500, $1,000, unlimited?  I've come to believe 
after this experience that "reasonable" limits are in the eye of 
the beholder.  Nothing will solve this problem until there is 
public financing of elections, with appropriate caps on money 
collected and incentives to limit spending---with free County 
cable TV air time for candidates.  I'm seriously thinking of 
floating a local initiative to be placed on the next ballot 
requiring just that.