Ed. Note: Cross-posted at Bleeding Heartland.
Today, we need action at the grassroots and netroots level to the bring Voter-Owned Iowa Clean Elections law out of subcommittee, to the full House Appropriations Committee, and then to the floor for debate in the Iowa House. Ed Fallon (and his group I’m For Iowa) and former Governor Tom Vilsack both support HF 805 and right now the bill is in an appropriations subcommittee with instructions to kill the bill.
Members of that subcommittee include:
- Rep. Dave Jacoby (D)
House District 30 — Johnson County
David.Jacoby@legis.state.ia.us - Rep. Jo Oldson (D)
House District 61 — Polk County
Jo.Oldson@legis.state.ia.us - Rep. Dwayne Alons (R)
House District 4 — Sioux County
Dwayne.Alons@legis.state.ia.us
Please email them or call the House Switchboard at (515) 281-3221 to get a hold of them and ask them to support HF 805, the VOICE legislation. The subcommittee is expected to meet either tomorrow or Wednesday — without large citizen support and efforts to communicate that support to them, they’ll kill the bill. We cannot allow that to happen. If the bill comes out of the subcommittee, it essentially becomes “funnel-proof” and must then be considered before the full House Appropriations Committee and would likely make it to the floor of the House for consideration.
When you contact your legislators, use this email from T.M. Lindsey as an example — and remember, be POLITE! Also, include in your email if they plan on voting for the bill or against the bill, both in subcommittee and in further debate. If they email you back, please post the response in the comments section and we can work to further inquire about the bill and where its going. From these responses, we’ll start to put a list together of where each Representative stands and we can put the pressure on them.
Left a voice mail message for Jo Oldson. I don’t live in her district, but I see her from time to time at political events, and I think she would remember who I am.
Will post again if I hear back from her or her staff.
When you are talking to a progressive, it’s good to mention that progressives have been able to do so much in Maine since they established their voluntary clean elections system. It really strengthens our hand.
Obviously, don’t use this talking point with Republicans! Tell them how the voluntary clean elections system has bipartisan support in Arizona. Also stress that it is voluntary–candidates can opt out. This means courts can’t strike down the system like they have struck down some spending limits.