John,

Our Legal Director Ron Fein and I recently spent two days in Seattle advocating for the Clean Campaigns Act, Councilmember Lorena González’s landmark campaign finance legislation. The model bill, which we helped to draft, would end super PACs and foreign-influenced corporate spending in city elections. After joining Councilmember González for a panel addressing money and corporate influence in local elections, we appeared before the Seattle City Council to provide testimony in favor of the legislation. If we learned anything from Amazon’s $1.5 million attempt to influence Seattle’s recent city council elections, this legislation is now more important than ever.

In Seattle, as in so many places, the corrupting influence of big money in politics is not just a threat. It’s here and now. Seattle is already experiencing this flood with respect to the corrupting influence of super PACs and with respect to foreign-influenced corporate spending. The city is well-suited to address this flood and to protect its democracy, and we’re proud to be working with Councilmember González and Fix Democracy First on this model legislation.

Can you chip in to help us fight super PACs and foreign corporate money in elections in Seattle and nationwide?

None of this would have been possible without you. Your support for Free Speech For People allows us to retain a hardworking team of lawyers to draft this legislation, provide expert testimony in Seattle, and build public support for this key reform. Should the City Council pass this model bill, you will have played a role in taking on super PACs and foreign corporate money in elections in Seattle and elsewhere. We’re ready to build on the victory we won with this model bill in St. Petersburg, Florida, but we need your help.

Seattle and St. Petersburg are just the beginning. As you read this, similar bills are under consideration in Maryland, Massachusetts, and New York City. As the New York Times reported in October, our legislation could “potentially set up a new legal challenge that could reshape the national conversation on campaign finance reform.”

Chip in today to help us put an end to super PACs and foreign corporate money in our elections.

Thanks for all you do,

John Bonifaz (President, Free Speech For People)