Clean government activists in California are having a challenging week. First, they saw their hopes for a ballot initiative on Citizens United dashed this week by the state Supreme Court. The initiative would have been just advisory, allowing voters to give their opinion on whether Congress should overturn the landmark U.S. Supreme Court Citizens United campaign finance decision. Because it is advisory, and wouldn't have binding legal effect on California law, opponents argue that it's not valid and took their opposition to court. The California Supreme Court ordered Secretary of State Debra Bowen to keep the initiative off of the ballot pending a final ruling on the issue. That ruling isn't likely to come in time for the initiative to make the ballot, effectively killing it for this cycle.
Now there's word that another effort, passing the California DISCLOSE Act in the legislature is also in jeopardy. The measure would do what the national DISCLOSE Act would have done: let voters know who is behind all the ads they're subject to through clear and prominent disclosure on the ads. That would include all ads: television, radio, print advertising, and websites. The measure has already passed the state Senate, but is now potentially threatened in the state Assembly's Appropriations Committee. Worse, the committee is controlled by Democrats.
The Senate author of the bill, commenting on the fact that 100 people showed up last week to a hearing in the committee in support of the bill, said, "This strikes at a very fundamental chord within all of us, that there is a real threat to the foundation of our democracy right now." The huge amount of dark money in our politics—all the way down to the state and local level—is a threat to our democracy, and right now these state efforts are critical to building momentum for national change, for an eventual constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. If you're in California, call your legislator and Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins to ask her to take the lead on passing this critical legislation.