OK, it was a crappy election. Commissioners, school board members, the mayor and clerk elected by about 10% of the voters.People seem to have given up even trying to hold an election on a level playing field. The opponents were valiant but no match for mega-bucks handed to incumbents. Check the contributions. Money from out of town and out of state, multiple donations from corporations and family, union money, PAC money; money that dwarfed contributions from individuals. Money that fed the incumbent machine like breakfast and buses to the polls, umbrellas, book bags, CDs, health fairs and anything else you can conjure; some of it on your tax dollars some from clients looking for favors, not much from individuals.
Term limits? Do we really want this crop for 8 more years or the next crop for a guaranteed 8 years? At large districts will be tied up in court for decades? Big salaries won’t get them out either.
There is one charter amendment that can change things overnight, permanently. One amendment that cannot be diluted by ordinances. One amendment that will level the field and take away the huge incumbent advantage. That is:
CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM!
Here is how it would work:
1. 75% of money contributed must come from the district (Souto did this to us to stop public campaign financing). In countywide elections, 75% must come from the county.
2. No business, corporate, PAC, or union contributions. Adult (18+) individuals only (no kids or family pets)! It used to be this way until Heyman changed it.
3. Maximum donation $100.00.
4. Candidate loans $500.00 maximum.
5. No candidate “events” paid with public money 6 months prior to an election.
6. No candidate image or name on county projects 6 months prior to the election.
7. In kind donations $100.00 maximum/donor.
Add your own ideas. With one petition drive we can make elections equal and give respected community members a fair shot.
12 comments:
All good points but also need to include some way to prevent incumbents from swooping into high densiy facilities, like senior housing, and filling their dance cards. Maybe the Elections Department could send a representative to facilities with historically high absentee votes, deliver ballots and collect them. In some districts, only the commission of the district is allowed inside. Opposition candidates find it hard to reach these goldmines of voters.
I am on board with the reforms. Now watch the commission, with a little help from Harvey Ruvin, pass ordinances to stop this petition drive!
Not only Harvey Rubin but also Publix will assist to stop any petition drives.
The proposal looks good to me as long as the BCC doesn't block it in court as they usually do when they don't like the idea.
Theoretically, a good idea. Practically speaking, I think there would be numerous legal challenges to anything that strict under 1st amendment free speech issues. I know i'm going to get railed on this, but I'm not sure how any change this drastic would survive a court challenge (because the challenge would be brought in federal court).
You're telling candidates what their allowed to do with their money ($500 max), your limiting people's donations by address.
The specific limitations on project names/images on county/city projects is a much more doable thing, i believe.
very funny photo. Doesn't miami beach have some sort of ordinance that said if you are going before the commission you can't contribute...? Anyone?
Nice thought but it will never fly. The only perfectly legal and possible to get through will be term limits limited to 8 years. Even on that you will get a hell of fight from the inside interests.
the Supreme Court said money equals speech so this will only fly if it doesn't apply to the candidates themselves. At that point though, we're right back where we started.
The way to fix it is to restore the public campaign finance system that Jimmy Morales championed after the VOTERS approved it.
The Commission gutted the system because there were a couple cheaters, that got caught and disqualified mind you, who tried to game the system to get campaign cash.
Restore the public campaign finance system, improve oversight, maybe pay more than $6000 a year, and then you'll have competitive elections again.
It worked for Carlos Alvarez.
Back to the nursing home thing, I believe that only pre-authorized members of the board of elections should be handling nursing home voting. Candidates should be notified on the day that the board of elections is going to be there so that they can send representatives to audit and monitor (like they do at the polls) the activity. Absentee vote soliciting should happen in the Sunshine. Pants on Fire, Mensa, what say you...does this make sense? If we can send out a blood bank to get blood, why can't board of elections send out people to get votes? The thing about this is that you can't vote twice, so, board of elections can either facilitate a meaningful ballot with these folks or send in a blank on in their name to prevent subsequent ones from being counted. (You know, kind of like with Florida Hometown Democracy and the board of elections not counting the "second" petition.
How can this be illegal? Only people from the district can vote, only people from the district can give money to qualify for public campaign financing. BUT the people of the district cannot be empowered to elect AND finance their representatives? The system today tells district voters that donors in other places will elect, by virtue of $$$$, their representatives. How free is that speech? It's a system that makes competition impossible, how democratic is that? It's a system that allows wealthy donors to control election outcome when 12 out of 13 commissioners are not elected by the district. Is that democratic? As long as we have district voting, empower the districts otherwise disband the districts and then candidates can take money from all the districts.
Maybe we should revisit district voting.
I like the last comment. Without district voting the elected will have to please all people.
Absentee ballots are the root of all evil. Until we learn how to make them corrupt-proof, I will not believe that they are not being misused.
Some of the county races barely changed after the election votes came in due to the abundance of absentees.
The terms "consulting" and "campaign outreach" can be euphamisms for absentee ballot mining. It's a lucrative, predatory process that exploits the elderly, infirmed and economically disadvantaged. Examination of the County Commission races will show that had every challenger beaten the incumbents by a percentage point at the polls on Tuesday, incumbents would still win handily, compliments of absentee ballots.
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