By now, all ED Progressives should have heard of the California Disclose Act, AB249 (formerly AB14). What you may not understand is how important passage of this bill is to holding clean elections in 2018. If passed, it goes into effect January 1, 2018 and will be in place for the 2018 elections. Affecting only ballot measures, it requires that the true funders over $50,000 of political ads will be disclosed on those ads, in legible font. Remember in 2016 we had no less than 17 ballot measures for voters to figure out? And 95% of the time, whoever spends the most money, wins. Is this what we call democracy?

We have until September 15 for the bill to pass. It now faces a vote on the full Senate floor and then goes back to the Assembly for a concurrence vote. It requires a two-thirds majority vote--very hard to achieve. After that, Governor Brown has until October 15 to approve.

AB249 has support of over 300 organizations and leaders, including California Democratic Party, and the Justice, Green, and Peace and Freedom parties. Also, League of Women Voters, Common Cause, and other “good government” organizations.

Who isn’t supporting it? The California Republican Party has not stepped up for transparency and disclosure, unfortunately. But several free-thinking individual Republican representatives are considering supporting the bill.

Though it seems a no-brainer (who wants to go on record to continue deceiving and confusing voters??), this bill will pass ONLY WITH THE LOUD SUPPORT OF GRASSROOTS CITIZENS. Over 90,000 Californians have already signed petitions in support (including over 45,000 paper petitions).

What can EDP folks do in the next one-and-a-half weeks to get this vital bill passed?

Go to www.yesfairelections.org and sign the AB249 petition, even if you have signed it before. (This triggers an email to your representatives).
While at the website, sign up to volunteer (consider training on CallFire to make phonebanking calls to Clean Money supporters in key districts).
Go to facebook.com/California Disclose Act and sign the AB249 petition, even if you have signed it before.
Call your Assemblymember/Senator and demand he support AB249. While all three ED County representatives are Republican, Assemblyman Kiley (District 6) is open-minded and considering supporting the bill. Assemblyman Bigelow (District 5) and Senator Gaines (District 1) just need to know their constituents are demanding transparency.

Please join the small but mighty EDP Money Out of Politics activists in passing AB249!