Walt,
We've got a great opportunity to further our efforts at achieving meaningful campaign finance reform in communities throughout the country. We can use your help at a Denver City Council Committee hearing on The Democracy For The People Initiative this coming Tuesday, August 14 at 1:30 p.m.
As I hope you know, our initiative is already on the ballot in November in Denver. We have been working with City Council to ensure the initiative is as sound as possible, and they will be hearing and voting on their proposal to send a referred measure to the ballot that is based on our language and provides the opportunity to include some of the ideas we've heard from supporters about how to improve the initiative.
By all accounts, our initiative has a good chance of passing on the ballot, and we believe the referred measure only improves our chances of a big victory over big money in politics in November. Your support has already pushed Council to consider this positive action, and your voices at Tuesday's meeting will help tilt the odds in favor of the public interest over the special interests.
The referred measure sticks to all the core components of our initiative -- a ban on direct corporate contributions to campaigns, maintaining the newly passed requirements on disclosing dark money our initiative calls for, lowering the relatively high campaign contribution limits in Denver to be on scale with the considerably lower state limits, and establishing a publicly financed election system with 9-to-1 matches on contributions up to $50 to candidates who opt in for matching funds and don't take special interest money.
If you'd like to show up and urge Council to vote in favor of referring the revised measure to the ballot, please go to Denver's City and County Building at 1437 Bannock St. by 1 p.m. to sign up for the public comment period. There are 15 minutes for comments with a maximum two minutes per speaker.
We did give a briefing to this committee in July (without public comment), and you can see video of the meeting by clicking here. We were the first item on the agenda, right after Council introductions, and our presentation was about 20 minutes, followed by questions and answers.
The current members of the committee are Council Members Kevin Flynn (chair), Robin Kneich (vice-chair), Kendra Black, Rafael Espinoza, Paul Kashmann, and Mary Beth Susman. We're glad to see this effort, and grateful that your strong grassroots support has made this kind of progress possible.
We'll touch base shortly about upcoming volunteer opportunities for locals and for supporters around the country to reach Denver voters about supporting The Democracy For The People Initiative on the ballot in November.
