When, in the wake of the September 11 attacks,conservatives pushed a $100-billion economic-stimulus package that favored theircorporate allies over laid-off workers, a coalition of more than 60 groups,spearheaded by the Institute for America's Future, built a nationwidecampaign toexpose the bill's corporate profiteering and promote a counteragenda thatactually addresses the problems of recession.
A Greenberg Research survey (sponsored by Democracy Corps) helpedframe theeffort by revealing the public's antipathy toward a "stimulus" that amounted tolittle more than throwing money at corporate opportunists. With the assistance ofCitizens for Tax Justice and Fenton Communications, the Institutefor America'sFuture co-sponsored full-page ads--headlined "Sacrifice is forSuckers"--attacking the bill in The New York Times and The WashingtonPost. Soon thereafter, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) passedalong toSenate leaders Tom Daschle and Trent Lott a critique in the form ofan openletter that was signed by nine Nobel laureates. A small-market talk-show campaign(for radio and TV) was pieced together; the AFL-CIO and the AmericanFederationof State, County and Municipal Employees sponsored a $2-million series of TVadsthat ran in nine states.
Organizers have made creative use of the Web, with new sites such asHowDareThey.org (sponsored by PublicCampaign) and RecoveryWatchdog.org(sponsored by United for a Fair Economy). The Institute for America'sFuture hasdocumented that at least 75,000 people have contacted their senators. Establishedsites, such as MoveOn.org and (our very own)EPN.org, have also providedextensive coverage.
Labor unions, women's groups, and environmental organizations joined onNovember 13 to promote an Economic Security Day of Action, which included 35events across the country. Three days later, USAction converted its nationalconvention into a rally opposing the stimulus plan. EPI and the CongressionalProgressive Caucus, meanwhile, have drafted alternative plans of their own.
Campaign Finance: Fits and Starts
The storm that the McCain-Feingold bill created inWashington, D.C., this spring seemed all but dead--until word was released inlate November that reformers were only seven signatures away from the 218necessary to get Meehan-Shays, the companion to McCain-Feingold, discharged inthe House.
In North Carolina, a public-financing measure for state-level supreme courtand appellate court candidates recently passed the Senate. The measure, pushed byNorth Carolina Voters for Clean Elections and a diverse array of otherorganizations, faces unclear prospects in the House. Reformers in Wisconsin,where a similar measure is moving forward, will be watching North Carolinaclosely.
In Cincinnati, Ohio, a dynamic grass-roots effort guided by the Fair ElectionsCoalition (www.fairelectionscincinnati.org)paid off last month when votersapproved--by fewer than 600 votes--Issue 6, which will provide citywidecandidates with partial public financing and strengthen contribution limits aswell as disclosure and enforcement requirements.
Let's hope that they escape the fate of the persistent folks at Mass Votersfor Clean Elections (www.massvoters.org),who have been struggling withimplementation problems since 1998, when a ballot measure that established publicfinancing for Massachusetts candidates was overwhelmingly approved. In the mostrecent scene of this direct-democracy thriller, legislators failed to includefunds for the program in the state budget. Some 36 plaintiffs, ranging from theRepublican Party to labor organizations, have filed a lawsuit claiming that thestate constitution establishes the right of the people to enact laws at theballot box and circumvent an unresponsive legislature. Lawyers at the NationalVoting Rights Institute argued the case before the state supreme court in earlyDecember.
The Energy Behind the Energy Fight
Round two of the energy battle is warming up as the debate shifts to theSenate. The House bill, passed in August, would open the Arctic National WildlifeRefuge to oil drilling, offer sham increases in fuel-efficiency standards, failto lessen U.S. dependency on foreign oil, and, according to US PIRG, dole outabout $38 billion in subsidies to big fossil-fuel burners and nuclear plants.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle predicts that the Senate's bill, which ismore conservation-oriented, will come to a vote in late January or earlyFebruary.A group of environmental, religious, and labor organizations is helping topromote some of the better provisions in Daschle's bill. (Check outwww.epn.org/energy.)
In an attempt to shore up labor support for renewable-energy provisions,Senators John Kerry and Joseph Lieberman held a press conference withunions--Service Employees International Union and Communications Workers ofAmerica among them--at which they released a report created by the TellusInstitute and MRG & Associates for the World Wildlife Fund that illustrates howthe United States can create 1.3 million new jobs through clean-energy researchand development.
Networks is a new feature that offers a biweekly look at activism andat the use of the Internet as an organizing tool. It is a project of theElectronic Policy Network (www.epn.org), amaster Web site sponsored by TheAmerican Prospect that provides access to the Web sites of progressive andpolicy-research organizations.
