John, BREAKING NEWS: The New York State Senate just passed the Democracy Preservation Act (S1126)! New York is now one step closer to passing the first statewide ban on political spending by multinational corporations, ushering in a new era of campaign finance reform. Across the country, companies with partial foreign ownership, like Amazon, have used their money to influence the outcome of elections and political agendas in their favor. The Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United created a loophole for foreign interests to acquire stakes in U.S. corporations and then use that leverage to influence or control the corporation’s political activity, including campaign contributions, contributions to super PACs, and independent expenditures. New York State elections are no exception. For example, Airbnb, partly owned by a Russian oligarch’s venture fund, spent $11M in New York’s 2016 legislative races. Free Speech For People is proud to support this legislation, modeled on the ordinance we helped to pass in Seattle. The thresholds put forth in the New York legislation target some of the largest corporate campaign contributors, effectively barring over 98% of S&P 500 companies from influencing elections in the state. This is just the beginning. Six additional states (Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Oregon) are already considering similar bans, and no doubt others will follow. We hope you’ll join us as we fight to bring an end to foreign-influenced corporate spending in our elections once and for all. In solidarity, Alexandra Flores-Quilty
Campaign Director, Free Speech For People | 
