October 13, 2009
ISSUE: Campaign Finance Reform
ACTION: Call the CHANGE Illinois! Hotline, 1-800-719-3020, and tell your state senator and state representative that we need meaningful Campaign Contribution Limits that include contributions from legislative leaders and political parties.
Your message: Illinois needs to limit the amount of money that anyone can contribute to a candidate. Legislative leaders are writing a bill to limit everyone but themselves. Please tell your leader that Illinois needs legislation that limits campaign contributions and that money from legislative leaders and political parties must be limited, too.
BACKGROUND: The General Assembly will soon debate Speaker Madigan’s bill to limit contributions from everyone except political parties and legislative leaders.
Limiting contributions by everyone except leaders and parties would further concentrate the power of legislative leaders and other party leaders.
Illinois now does not limit contributions from anyone. And money from parties and leaders accounts for $1 of every $5 spent in legislative campaigns – and as much as 50 percent to 90 percent of some very close races. If Illinois does not limit leaders and parties, state legislators will be even less independent.
LWVIL is a member of CHANGE Illinois, a coalition of civic, business, labor, professional, non-profit and philanthropic organizations that advocates for campaign reform.
When Gov. Quinn vetoed the flawed limits legislation at the end of August, the legislative leaders and the governor said they would work with CHANGE Illinois on an improved campaign contribution limits bill that could be passed in the fall veto session, and there have been several negotiating meetings.
Leaders of the CHANGE Illinois coalition said the negotiators appear to have tentative agreements on ways to limit contributions by individuals, political action committees, candidate committees, corporations, labor unions, and associations, but they have not been able to agree on the central issue of limitations on the campaign funds controlled by legislative leaders and the political parties.
In the past, legislative leaders have directed hundreds of thousands of dollars into close election campaigns – money from interests far removed from those legislative districts. Legislators have become too reliant on their leaders for cash and staff to run their campaigns, and such large contributions have eaten away at the ability of voters to trust the independence of their elected representatives.
CHANGE Illinois! believes an uneven system that affords only legislative caucuses or political parties unlimited transfers will make those organizations more powerful because they will be able to send unparalleled contributions to selected committees or individuals. Illinois' campaign finance system should encourage candidate independence and diversity by evenly limiting transfers from all entities.
The LWVIL has been working on Campaign Finance issues in Illinois since 1995. This is our best chance in over a decade to get meaningful Campaign Finance Reform legislation through the Illinois General Assembly.
Use the power of your voice! Call, 1-800-719-3020 today, to tell your legislators we need meaningful campaign contribution limits that include contributions from legislative leaders and political parties.
For additional information about the campaign contribution limits, including examples of leader and party contributions in legislative leaders, please visit www.changeil.org.
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