Anchorage Daily News

Alaskans, mark your calendars for Tuesday, Aug. 26. You'll want to be sure to vote in the statewide primary election, because it's your chance to strike a blow against political corruption by voting YES on the Clean Elections initiative.

The initiative, which qualified for the ballot last week, would transform Alaska politics and give Alaska's state government back to the people it is supposed to serve.

In the Veco scandal, Alaskans saw how Bill Allen used his checkbook and his company's money to become the state's most influential non-elected power broker.

While Allen and his allies broke various laws, the kind of corruption revealed in the Veco scandal is almost inevitable. That's because our current election financing system asks elected officials to perform unnatural acts.

We expect candidates to seek large sums of money from wealthy sources who want to influence government decisions. Then, if the candidates win office, they are expected to do absolutely nothing for their benefactors in return.

It can work out in that innocent, naive way, but building an entire system based on that expectation is a recipe for trouble. It's like putting a married man alone in a room full of skimpily-clothed young women who take turns sitting in his lap and stroking his hair -- and then expecting him to remain faithful to his wife.

Clean Elections is a way to end that temptation and get those influence-seeking campaign contributors out of the picture.

The Alaska Clean Election plan is a voluntary system that offers candidates modest sums of public money to run for office. In return, they agree to abide by spending limits and use only Clean Election money to run their race.

If opponents run a conventional campaign funded by special interests, Clean Elections candidates don't have to fight with one hand tied behind their back. In those races, the Clean Elections candidate gets more money to compensate.

Will the Clean Elections plan waste a lot of money by encouraging even more nutcases to run for office? (Lord knows, Alaska has its share of those.)

No, the initiative has a good screening process to weed out the wackos. Candidates have to get signatures and $5 qualifying contributions from a significant number of supporters to qualify for Clean Election money.

Alaska's initiative is based on Clean Election systems used in seven other states. Arizona and Maine are the most successful examples. In Arizona, voters have twice elected a governor who ran as a clean-election candidate. In Maine, more than 80 percent of the legislature has used the state's clean election funding system.

The Alaska Clean Elections initiative applies only to state campaigns, not federal or local contests. Passing it sets up the framework for a Clean Elections system, but there is no guarantee it will be funded. (The Alaska Constitution prevents voters from appropriating money by ballot initiative.) Alaskans could pass this reform measure, and next year's Legislature could kill it in the cradle by refusing to fund it.

It would cost about $6 million a year if every state candidate agreed to run clean. That may seem like a lot to spend on politicians, but think about it this way. One legislator, acting alone, can easily waste $6 million taking care of a special interest in the capital budget. In Alaska's last state election, candidates had to raise $17 million. Do we think the people who supplied that $17 million didn't get a commensurate return on their investment?

So, here's another task Alaskans should put on their to-do list this election season. Be sure to ask candidates for state Legislature this question: If voters pass the Clean Elections initiative, will you fund it?

They need to say yes, so Alaskans can restore the democracy we're supposed to have -- where all citizens have an equal say in their government, regardless of how big their checkbook is.

BOTTOM LINE: This ballot initiative will help inoculate Alaska against future political corruption.

Who's up / Who's down

DOWN Dogs in the Chugach: Winter of wolverine trapping in Chugach State Park snares six dogs, only two wolverines. Trappers 2, canine-Americans -6.

DOWN Earmarks: Alaskans can't understand this talk of a ban. Earmarks have always worked for us.

EVEN Bill Starr: Eagle River assemblyman is fined $315, drags opponent into an APOC complaint, and finally shuts up. On with the campaign.

DOWN Polar bears: Two months past the deadline, Fish and Wildlife Service still can't decide whether polar bears are threatened. Look, Jane, see ice melt.

EVEN Gov. Sarah: Vetoed once, those capital budget items are back, and now she's talking compromise with the House. Ain't talkin' with the Senate. C'mon Lyda, lighten up!

DOWN BP: Congress wants another look at plea deals with Justice Department. Take heart, you're still more popular than Exxon.

EVEN Jeff King: His fifth Iditarod win slipped out of Elim with Lance Mackey, who sprung the old nap trap. Even so, what a great race King ran.

UP Junior Olympians: An inch or two of fresh snow mid-week takes the slop out of big national nordic ski races in Anchorage. Take that, torrents of spring.

ADVERTISEMENT