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Teresa Mosqueda spent days asking people to report to the office. Seattle union leader and third-generation Mexican-American. The most effective way to deal with the problems of the families he worked with was to encourage people who had once lived in politics. But when people asked him to run, Mosqueda refused, citing a hurdle most Americans had: he couldn’t afford it.
That changed when he learned about democracy bonds …a program funded by taxpayers He sends four $ 25 certificates to Seattle residents to give to local candidates. This means that more people can help with local campaigns and more people can do it, just like Mosqueda.
Overcome by a voting initiative in 2015, the Seattle bond program was the first of its kind in the country. Mosqueda, who is currently a member of the council, says it is inconvenient for many candidates to ask for large donations: “I don’t personally know how to gift people with $ 5,000.” Now, through bonds, candidates don’t have to rely on donors with deep pockets. “You don’t want to feel in front of wealthy corporations or individuals,” he says.
As the last two Seattle City Council elections show, the program has not stopped the impact of these mega donors, and has not radically diversified the base of Seattle donors, especially those with older white populations. But research published in 2019 Journal of Electoral Law shows it certainly undermined these effects; Voters voted in the 2017 and 2019 Seattle elections, bond users were less wealthy than money donors.
Now, as Seattle introduces democracy bonds in the mayoral race, the city aims to further dilute the influence of big donors (Amazon donated $ 350,000 to help elect the last mayor) attracting smaller ones. And some other municipalities, meanwhile New York and in Washington, DC, as they try to democratize campaign funding by matching and multiplying small donations, critics say these programs are much more accessible. “You still have to have your own money to participate,” says Brian McCabe, one of the researchers who led the 2019 study.
In fact, perhaps the biggest success of the program, according to McCabe and author Jen Heerwig, is the number of donors it has attracted. Nearly 8% of Seattle’s electorate donated to local candidates in 2019, up from just 1.3% in 2015. That makes Seattle the national leader “a lot,” in funding local campaigns, McCabe says.
“The feeling is that the system is not working as intended and that people are regular, progressive, independent, conservative, not being represented.”
HarrisX has revealed the latest poll of more than 1,000 voters for The Hill political news 57% believe that the US political system only works for those with money and power. As Seattle aims to directly promote the campaigns of people who do not have these benefits, many other U.S. cities are questioning whether democracy bonds can address that problem.
Andrew Allison, founder of the Austinites Progressive Reform Progressive political action committee in the Texas capital, recently collected the 20,000 signatures needed to get an initiative in the May vote.
“In Austin, about 70% of donations are only three of our 10 districts,” Allison says. “And that kind of donor concentration doesn’t match the idea of a person, a vote.”
The word comes out
In 2019, four of Seattle City Council’s first nine candidates said they would not run if they did not have democracy bonds, according to a 2020 report by BERK Consulting. This year, eight of the 12 mayoral candidates who were confirmed in early April are accepting bonds, including Colleen Echohawk.
“I often come from a community where we don’t get to help with political campaigns,” says Echohawk, who would become the city’s first indigenous mayor. “If I made the donation, it would be $ 10.”
Echohawk has democracy bonuses on its website and Instagram. However, he says many of his followers have “no idea what they have.”
That may be the biggest flaw in the program; In 2019, less than 40,000 Seattle residents – roughly 5% of the population – used their bonds. Many seem to confuse it with the garbage message. Seattle residents can choose virtual bonds or ask for replacements online, most still do not know if the program exists. Fans of democracy bonds are also wondering why all Seattle homeowners should pay — even if it’s only $ 8 a year — for a program used by a slim minority.
“If you still have super PACs and private funding for candidates, I don’t think it’s a good way to get money out of politics,” says Paul Gessing, CEO of the Rio Grande Foundation. happy when democracy was a bond proposal defeated in his hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 2019.
In 2017, the Pacific Legal Foundation, a libertarian law firm, sued Seattle, allocating tax dollars to campaigns that did not allow the democracy bond to violate its freedom of expression. But the state’s highest court upheld the program.
However, most Americans will pass the law limit the role of money in politics, According to the 2018 Pew report.
Jack Noland, research manager at RepresentUs, a non-profit organization working on campaign finance reform, has outlined a number of laws that would help this, including an action against corruption to stop political bribery. But he said bond programs aim to transform the entire political process, not just the outcome, by encouraging candidates to approach a wide range of components.
As evidence of the “broad interest” in the bond program, he noted In favor of the Law of the People recently approved by the U.S. House of Representatives. It includes a program that would do that democracy pilot vouchers for congressional candidates in three states, they will be elected by the Federal Electoral Commission. “Between partisan lines,” says Noland, “there is a feeling that the system is not working as intended and that people are regular, progressive, independent, conservative, not being replaced.”
Julia Hotz is a journalist who works to address social issues.
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