Political Reform
Equal Access to Election Boards and Commissions: In Iowa, Independents are discriminated against in the political process. Independents are excluded from serving on Election Boards and commissions, with republicans and democrats having a monopoly of board membership. This in spite of the fact that the Republicans and Democrats are much smaller voter groups. Independents still have no representation on election boards and commission.
Ballot Access: States passed a myriad of laws restricting candidates that are not a Democrat or Republican from gaining access to the ballot. If a minor party candidate cannot get on the ballot, obviously they will not get elected and more importantly the party will never gain name recognition. Reforming access to ballot is crucial for greater political participation of voters and candidates in the United States.
Independents and third parties must gather 30 times more signatures to get on the ballot for President than Democrats and Republicans. There are 50 different sets of rules for access to the ballot for federal office in the 50 states! Federal election ballot access should be fair and uniform. A bill has languished in Congress since the early 1980s. The Fair Elections Bill, most recently introduced by Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas), establishing uniform standards for ballot access in all 50 states, is long overdue.
Clean Elections is a practical, proven reform that puts voters in control of elections. Rather than being forced to rely on special interest donors to pay for their campaigns, candidates have the opportunity to qualify for full public funding which ends their reliance on special interest campaign cash. Being freed from the money chase means they have more time to spend with constituents, talking about issues that matter to them. When they enter office, they can consider legislation on the merits, without worrying about whether they are pleasing well heeled donors and lobbyists.
In the U.S. Congress, Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) and Reps. John Larson (D-Conn.) and Walter Jones (R-N.C) have introduced the Fair Elections Now Act which provide full public financing for Senate candidates. A companion bill in the House is also expected soon. Clean Elections is law in seven states and two cities: Arizona; Connecticut; Maine; New Jersey; New Mexico; North Carolina; Vermont; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Portland, Oregon. Activists in 28 states are working to advance full public financing.
Seven states and two cities have Clean Elections, or full public financing, for some political offices. Three states—Arizona, Connecticut, and Maine—provide full public financing for all statewide and legislative races. These laws have been approved through a combination of the ballot process and by legislatures.
Clean Elections gives candidates the option to qualify for public funding to run their campaigns. While the specifics vary, typically a candidate must collect a set number of small qualifying contributions—usually $5—from people in their district. The number of signatures and contributions required varies according to the office sought.
If a candidate runs under the Clean Elections system and is outspent by a privately funded opponent, the law will typically provide a matching grant to the publicly funded candidate, up to a limit. Extra funding is also often available if there is independent spending against a candidate by an outside group or individual.
Candidates who choose not to be participate in the Clean Elections system can raise money from private donors, but must follow state campaign finance limits and disclosure laws. Clean Elections laws must be voluntary to comply with the Supreme Court’s 1976 Buckley v. Valeo ruling, which specifically approved of voluntary public financing systems.
Fair & Open Debates: The Commission on Presidential Debates, which currently receives tax exemption, is controlled by the two parties and has historically excluded independent and third party candidates from the presidential debates. Polls have shown that the American people want the debates open to candidates of all ballot qualified parties and candidates. A truly non-partisan body should be established and fair and clear criteria established for inclusion of all ballot qualified candidates and parties in the national debates. We support the same for Iowa election debates.
Term Limits: George Washington himself turned down a third term because he believed our elected leaders should not enjoy permanent incumbency. Term limits is a powerful tool against the Democrat/Republican incumbency protection racket. We support term limits as proposed by U.S. Terms Limits (www.ustermlimits.org) limiting the terms of Senators and members of Congress to between 6 and 8 years. We also need to eliminate the loopholes that exist in some term limits laws that were passed over the last decade. Term limits bring an end to life-long career politicians, and allows for citizen-run rather than special interest-run legislatures.
Campaign Finance Reform: We support full and timely disclosure of campaign contributions over the internet and prohibition of corporate funds and union dues for political campaigns. There should be criminal penalties and forfeiture of office for proven violations of campaign finance laws. They should be uniformly enforced against all parties and candidates.
Initiative, Referendum and Recall: The mother of all reforms is the citizens’ right to statewide initiative and referendum. 24 states have enjoyed the citizens’ right to petition to place initiatives and referenda on the statewide ballot since the early 1900s. Unfortunately, Iowa is not one of them. Women’s suffrage, labor rights, social security and many more reforms were won through the citizens initiative process in our country. In recent times it seems the only way to enact any real political reforms — like term limits, campaign finance reform, redistricting reform, fair ballot access reform, is through the I&R petition process. We strongly support Iowas right to initiative, referendum and recall at all levels of elections. What’s more, I,R & R are, likely, our only hope for stopping special interest deals
Politics today will be forever changed (for the better) by Iowans, at last, winning the right to statewide I&R.
Independent Iowans want to see a thorough on going debate on what is real campaign finance reform, which is a tricky question in our form of a democratic republic. Why? Because, until Iowa voting is seriously reformed (by the other means mentioned in this Political Reform section), most of the tried methods of campaign finance reform resulted in favoring one of the two major parties and stifling political competition from outside the system.
Proportional Representation: Under our winner take all system, every vote does not count. Since only the winner gets to govern, therefore, only the votes that elected the winner truly count. Proportional Representation is a way of making sure that every vote does count.
Proportional representation is a structural political reform that changes not merely the outcome and the process, but the culture of politics itself. Proportional representation is a system in which the State House of Representatives and State Senate, and local City Councils would be established according to the proportionality of the vote. This arrangement invites diverse constituencies to relate more directly to one another, rather than being controlled or censored by dominant blocs within whatever major party they happen to be.