On November 1, we gathered 80 community members at the Chinese American Service League for our Southwest Side Town Hall to learn how publicly financed elections can level the playing field.
This event was our fourth Fair Elections Town Hall in Chicago—co-hosted this time around with Reform for Illinois, Chinese American Service League, Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community, League of Women Voters Chicago, Asian American Midwest Progressives, and Workers Center for Racial Justice.
Fair Elections programs encourage candidates to earn support from the people they actually represent, rather than focusing on winning over big donors. By matching small-dollar donations with city funds, people who aren’t extremely rich get their donations amplified, and the candidates representing them can actually afford their races.
New York City, long known for its fair elections program, has propelled progressive champions like Zohran Mamdani to office, as he ran a campaign centered on working-class interests against his establishment opponent.
The Fair Elections ordinance, sponsored by Alder Matt Martin (47th) in city council, could bring this energy to Chicago. Here’s how it could work for us:
- The city would match the first $25 of a donation, amplifying it to 12 times its original amount. Additional small-dollar donations up to $150 would be amplified by 9 times.
- Candidates would be eligible to receive up to $200,000 in public funding every four-year cycle.
- The city would set limits on how much organizations and political committees can contribute to campaigns.
Our city is currently the largest in America without a matching program. Passing the Fair Elections Ordinance will ensure that candidates for office can compete against wealthy candidates in ultra-rich communities and better serve their communities.
To learn more about the Fair Elections Ordinance and The People’s Lobby’s plan to pass it, contact our political director, Shaddi Zeid, at shaddi@thepeopleslobbyusa.org, and stay tuned for another Fair Elections Town Hall this spring.