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Date: March 19, 2009
Support HB24 and SB1768
ACTION NEEDED:
Ask your State Senator and State Representative to enact campaign contribution limits (Support HB24 and SB1768). You may contact your legislators by calling the CHANGE Illinois Hotline, 1-800-719-3020.
There is a lot of talk about reforming Illinois government with both the Illinois Reform Commission appointed by Governor Quinn and the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Government Reform holding hearings. It is great that people are talking, but will the legislature enact meaningful reform? This is our message: If the legislature doesn’t get big, unregulated contributions out of our elections, they are not passing genuine reform!
TALKING POINTS:
- Campaign finance laws limit how much individuals can donate in 45 other states and for federal offices and, they are working.
- Limits would make it easier for citizens of ordinary means to run for office.
- Limits provide protection from the corruption that arises from both extortionate demands for contributions and from offers of large contributions in exchange for quid pro quos.
- Limits also reduce the likelihood that citizens will perceive that their government is for sale and restore some degree of confidence in the fairness of government.
- Limits force candidates to reach out to more ordinary citizens for financial support in smaller amounts.
BACKGROUND: The League supports improving methods of financing political campaigns in order to ensure the public’s right to know, combat corruption and undue influence, enable candidates to compete more equitably for public office and promote citizen participation in the political process.
The League of Women Voters has been working on the issue of Campaign Finance Reform for decades. We first became active on this issue on the national level in the early 1970’s during the Watergate era and on the state level since the mid 1990s initiating a contributions limits bill in the spring 1999 legislative session. The most recent legislation that passed in Illinois, Pay to Play, prohibits business owners with more than $50,000 in state contracts from making campaign contributions to office holders awarding the contracts.
The League is a member of CHANGE Illinois, www.ChangeIL.org, a coalition of civic, business, professional, non-profit and philanthropic organizations aligned to bring government integrity to Illinois. The coalition’s first priority is enacting strict limits on the amount of money that can be given to candidates and political action committees. The CHANGE ILLINOIS Hotline is sponsored by AARP.
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