Livermore Ballot Measure

I'm thinking about Chairing a local ballot measure to put the funding of Livermore elections directly into the voters' hands. The institution of voting is the most fundamental institution in a democracy, so why do we allow for private interests to fund candidates campaigns, and thereby the elections? Candidates need to be in the pockets of the voters, not land developer or trade union interests.

I was telling my wife and her parents tonight how local candidates (county and assembly) are, by and large, funded by large Los Angeles-based interests (usually Republicans by land developers and Democrats by unions). I mean, hell, can't they at least be in the pockets of LOCAL evil? :P

In any case, I'm still doing research on this, but there does seem to be a growing movement around the nation to take private interests out of the campaign finance equation. Yay! Oh, Berkeley tried to pass a similar measure this last election and lost. I have no idea what to make of that.

If you're interested, you can Google "voter owned elections" for language and info on the laws currently being passed. If you have any info, please let me know!