How I’m voting for the environment on Nov. 7, 2006.

My vote on Prop 89: YES

Prop 89, aka the Clean Money and Fair Elections Act, will take a lot of the dirty, corporate money out of elections.

Right now, big money special interests can pony up a lotta cash to politicians — helping them gain political favors. Prop 89 would change that.

The skinny on the prop, courtesy of Steve Lopez of the LA Times, who sez the Prop 89’s “so good it’s scary”: “It would strictly limit campaign contributions by corporations, unions and individuals; put a lid on candidate spending; and establish publicly financed campaigns paid for with a .2% increase in the corporate income tax rate.”

To get a sense of who Prop 89 would help, look no further than the group that sponsored it: The California Nurses Assn., cuz they felt patient care wouldn’t improve as long as special interests were allowed to buy their way into the public policy debate and sabotage needed reforms.

And of course, health care isn’t the only issue that’s affected by corporate money in elections. If you want to vote for the environment, vote yes on 89 — you don’t want Big Oil putting money toward anti-environmental policies.

Interestingly, according to the blog Governor Phil, Angelides is the only gubernatorial candidate who’s endorsed Prop 89. Kudos to Phil, who came out pro-89: reportedly characterizing Proposition 89 as nothing less than protecting democracy and creating a system “where it’s not how much money you can raise, but the power of your ideas.”

Arnold, as you might guess, is against prop 89 — cuz it raises taxes, he sez. The prop does increase the tax — on corporate profits — by 0.2%. Considering that this money’s gonna go towards raising the public money that’d be given to candidates who run clean campaigns, I’m cool with it. And I just don’t trust Arnold, who claims that “The evil’s not in the money,” cuz contributions have no inflence on him. I’m dubious. Very dubious.

In addition to the California Nurses Assn, Sierra Club sez yes to prop 89. So does Global Exchange, which recently sent out an email to its California members saying “now is the time to make real change in our state.” In fact, GX is looking for volunteers to help pass Prop 89; contact Nell Greenberg at nell@globalexchange.org if you’d like to help.

Here’s the main Yes on 89 site. Yes on 89 even has a blog :)

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