At the end of November, we pulled together more than 100 people at Rainbow Push in Kenwood to talk about how Chicago’s current electoral system, which requires candidates for City Council to finance their own campaigns, puts major barriers in front of working people who want to run for city office. In a city where the average aldermanic run costs $200,000, progressives who want to represent their wards face a lot of pressure to take money from corporate donors to be competitive.
But there’s a better way. In cities like New York, candidates who pledge to turn down corporate donations can opt into a matching program, where small-dollar donations are multiplied by public funds. This has been shown to increase the diversity not just of people who run for office but people who participate in the political process: if you can afford to give $5 to your candidate of choice, you’re a lot more likely to actually donate that money if you know your donation will turn into $60!
Chicago is currently the biggest city in America that doesn’t have a matching program. We need to pass the Fair Elections Ordinance to make sure candidates for office can win competitive races while staying true to the needs of their constituents rather than depending on corporations to fund their campaigns.
To learn more about the Fair Elections Ordinance and The People’s Lobby’s plan to pass it, contact me at shaddi@thepeopleslobbyusa.org, and stay tuned for another Fair Elections Town Hall this spring.
