National, state groups fight to get money out of politics

In giving presentations throughout Pennsylvania, Rabbi Michael Pollack will ask those in attendance to raise their hands if they think the “decisions made by the government reflect what you feel.”
His audience at Unitarian Universalist Church of the South Hills in Mt. Lebanon was bereft of arms going upward, and that’s nothing new for Pollack.
“I could be in rural Lancaster County and get the same response. I could be in downtown Philly and get the same response,” he said. “I do everywhere, because as a society, we are profoundly disconnected from the decisions that govern our lives.”
The executive director of March On Harrisburg, a nonpartisan organization working toward pro-democracy legislation, Pollack provides a primary reason for the situation.
“That’s because of corruption,” he asserted. “It’s that blinder, that block, that firewall between we, the people, and our government.”
Pollack joined Azor Cole, citizen empowerment coordinator for Cambridge, Mass.-based American Promise, as guest speakers for a June 16 forum organized by community advocacy groups Mt. Lebanon Rise Up and Partners for Progress SWPA with the theme “Get Money Out of Politics.”
“Poll after poll shows that Republicans, independents and Democrats all agree that there’s far too much money in politics,” Cole said, but lawmakers generally have been in no hurry to implement reforms.
His organization, also nonpartisan, is focused on addressing the issue through the passage of a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. One version of the measure that has 44 co-sponsors in the Senate and 167 in the House includes provisions to allow Congress and states to:
- Regulate and set limits on candidates and others raising and spending money to influence elections.
- Distinguish “between natural persons and corporations or other artificial entities created by law, including by prohibiting such entities from spending money to influence elections.”
According to United for the People, another national Constitutional amendment advocacy group, voters and/or legislatures in 19 states have taken action to call for such a measure. Pennsylvania is not among them.

How Electoral Integrity Project researchers evaluated the 2016 elections across the United States: Pennsylvania’s score of 56 ranks among the bottom seven.
The commonwealth, though, is among the states that rank near the bottom of an “index of electoral integrity” compiled by an international group of researchers through the independent Electoral Integrity Project. Criteria include electoral laws and procedures, district boundaries and campaign finance.
“We have in this state no limits on what you can gift a state legislator: brand-new cars, expensive vacations, endless wining and dining, tickets to the Penn State game, sideline passes at the Eagles games, tickets to the Steelers games, trips to Bermuda, trips to the beaches of Italy. These are all things that have happened in the last year,” Pollack said, acknowledging that not every elected official participates in such activities.
March On Harrisburg – which does, in fact, organize events that relate to its name – also advocates for reforms to prevent gerrymandering, the practice of drawing voting districts to give advantages to one political party over another, and to improve ballot access.
“While other states allow same-day registration, early voting, Election Day as a holiday, no-excuse absentee voting, automatic voter registration,” Pollack said, “Pennsylvania has none of that.”
His group does not oppose current office holders, he said.
“We’re not after the symptoms of the problem. We’re after the cause,” he explained. “The system is set up so that our votes don’t matter. Our voices don’t matter. They can be drowned out by big money. They can be distorted through gerrymandering. They can be kept away through voter suppression.
“As long as that’s the system, we’re going to keep getting this.”
For more information, visit www.americanpromise.net and marchonharrisburg.org.