Anchorage Daily News

On Aug. 26, we Alaskans have our one and only opportunity to pass the most significant "people's initiative" since statehood -- the Clean Elections Initiative. By voting yes on Ballot Measure 3, titled A Bill Providing for Public Funding in Campaigns, we can adopt a well-proven system that will serve Alaskans for many years to come. Ultimately, we can take back control of our state government from big money special interests like Veco that have severely compromised our political system for decades.

If passed, Ballot Measure 3 and public funding will put Alaskans back in charge of our Legislature and, consequently, our democracy. Corporations will no longer be able to buy their way into the halls of state government with their large, covert campaign contributions. Candidates will no longer be beholden to a few well-heeled donors and instead will be free to serve the best interests of the voters who elected them.

When Clean Elections candidates win and become legislators or governors, they will not owe special favors to anyone. We will likely save our treasury hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars by eliminating political paybacks.

Clean Elections laws have been working well in many other states, some for nearly a decade. In Maine and Arizona, four out of five voters support publicly funded Clean Elections.

The positive results of Clean Elections are impressive: The influence of big money has decreased, election races are more competitive, candidates are more diverse, voter turnout has increased and civic engagement in the election process has gone up.

Clean Elections is a completely voluntary system. Participating candidates must show a broad base of public support by collecting signatures and small $5 contributions from voters in their district. Clean Elections candidates must pledge to uphold strict spending limits and, in return, they qualify for enough money to run a viable campaign. Clean Elections level the playing field and allow candidates to focus on voters and ideas, instead of lobbyists and big money.

Alaska's ongoing FBI investigations and the Veco corruption scandal indicate we have a serious need to return accountability to our government. During these past few years, we have witnessed Alaska legislators and lobbyists giving and taking bribes, indicted and convicted of conspiracy, mail fraud, tax fraud, money laundering and extortion.

Additionally many candidates received free political polls and campaign contributions from Veco employees that were later illegally reimbursed with corporate money.

Last month's grand jury indictment of state Sen. John Cowdery clearly lays out Veco's effective methods for strong-arming legislators to vote for the lowest 20 percent tax rate on oil in 2006. In two secretly taped conversations between Veco lobbyist Rick Smith and Veco CEO Bill Allen Sr., Smith tells Allen, "the only leverage Company A (Veco) had to change votes on the 20/20 PPT legislation is through campaign contributions and by hosting fundraisers."

This insidious political corruption has likely cost our state billions of dollars in undercollected oil tax revenues and even more in lost opportunities. Public funding of campaigns effectively begins to remove big money and special interests from Alaska politics and allows a critical issue like oil taxation to get the attention it needs and deserves.

As long as candidates must raise huge sums of private money to get elected, corruption will continue. Politicians invariably serve those who finance their campaigns.

The solution is simple. If We the People of Alaska fund campaigns, then those elected will serve We the People; if we don't, rest assured special interests will continue to dominate our Legislature, our priorities and our future.

Let's make Alaska's 50th anniversary a real celebration for democracy on Aug. 26 by voting yes for Ballot Measure 3/Public Funding of Campaigns.

Tim June lives in Haines and is the co-founder and full-time volunteer chair of Alaskans for Clean Elections.

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