Yes on question 1 says no to corruption

August 20, 2006

SPECTRUM/Rep. Eric Croft

Not enough people take the time to vote. When asked why, many respond that they don't feel their votes count. Special interests, not the public interest, dominate the political process and the loyalties of our elected officials.

We cannot wait for the Legislature to reform itself. They won't do it. Governors elected by big money interests rarely have the courage to stand up to those same interests. The only way to get real reform is for us, the citizens, to stand up and demand it.

We need to clean up our government. We need our elected officials to respond to the public interest again. We need Ballot Measure 1, the &#8220Take Back Our State” initiative.

Here is what we get when we pass Ballot Measure 1:

€ We will know who is paying our legislators.

Ballot Measure 1 requires legislators to disclose any outside source of income over $1,000. A favorite trick of special interests is to hire legislators as &#8220consultants.” No work product, no real work, just another way to buy a legislator.

We cannot prevent them from having outside work, but we should demand full disclosure. With Ballot Measure 1, we will know who is trying to buy our government.

€ We will know who is lobbying the Legislature.

For years, Alaska had laws requiring lobbyists to register and disclose their clients and the amount they are paid to influence our elected officials. In 2003, the Legislature changed the rules to allow many lobbyists to remain hidden. Ballot Measure 1 restores our lobbyist registration laws.

Money does not equal speech. Every Alaskan has the right to speak to and lobby for projects to their legislator. Ballot Measure 1 preserves this right by allowing citizens unlimited access to their legislators.

But the trend of special projects agreed to in the dead of night with the promise of future campaign contributions or future contracts must end. You can help.

€ We will get big money out of Alaska politics.

Ballot Measure 1 makes sure that your contribution and your vote count. By limiting the amount that big contributors can give, we make our politicians go out and talk to all of us. This reduces the influence of special interests. It also makes for better laws.

Ballot Measure 1 also closes a soft-money loophole created by the Legislature to funnel money through the parties to candidates. Our original campaign finance laws limited donations to $5,000, but the Legislature allowed a special category of unlimited donations. We will close this loophole in our laws.

With Ballot Measure 1, we will take this state back from the special interests and return it to the people.

I wrote Ballot Measure 1 after watching the corruption in Juneau first hand. We collected more than 40,000 signatures to place the initiative on the primary ballot. Please join me and many other concerned Alaskans to take our government back.

Please vote &#8220Yes” on Ballot Measure 1 this Tuesday.

Rep. Eric Croft, D-Anchorage, is a candidate for governor.