January 20, 2010

Clean Elections Update  

Coalition partners of WV Citizens for Clean Elections were very encouraged when Governor Manchin announced in his State of the State address that he planned to offer legislation to establish a public financing pilot project for both Supreme Court seats to be filled in 2012. The proposal is a result of recommendations by the Independent Commission on Judicial Reform appointed by the Governor last spring. This week the promised bills have indeed been introduced, HB4130 and SB233. This legislation is similar to Senate Bill 311, sponsored by Senator Jeff Kessler (D-Marshall), which we supported last year. Our legislative public financing bill, HB2764 has also been re-introduced, and we hope that the interest in the judicial bill will be a catalyst for that proposal as well.

Here are links to the bills in case you would like to look them over.

To plan our legislative strategy as to how we can best support and move the legislation forward, we will be holding a coalition meeting next Thursday, January 28 at 10:30 AM, at the Catholic Diocesan office, 1116 Kanawha Blvd. E, Charleston. Please come and share your ideas! If you have any specific agenda items, just let me know and I will be happy to include them. This is a very exciting opportunity for us to enact a public financing program in West Virginia!

Carol Warren
WV Citizens for Clean Elections
(304) 847-5121
 

Voter-Owned Elections

Citizens for Clean Elections P.O. Box 6753 Huntington, WV 25773-6753 304-522-0246