Alaska was taken off guard with the recent Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Corporations now have “freedom of speech” in their campaigns for or against a candidate. Formerly illegal in Alaska, there are no provisions to require disclosure or limits for the new corporate “expressions”. The State limits on private citizen campaign contributions are the same after the Supreme Court ruling. Those limits include the $500 annual limit on individual donations to candidates and a disclosure requirement. Unless legislative action is taken, corporations will have more rights than the citizens of Alaska.
Senator Hollis French introduced Senate Bill 284 in February.
It passed the Senate on April 1, unanimously.
Representative Les Gara introduced an identical bill in the House. HB 409.
With two days left in the session, the bill is stuck in the House Finance Committee.
Just click
here to visit Mudflats and get a list of e-mail addresses and phone numbers to contact your Alaska Representatives and encourage them to do the right thing for the people of our fair state.
Thank you for taking the time to address this vitality important subject.
I would do it if I was an AK resident! Power to the people!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if anyone else is having this problem. Since Mudflats changed to its new format, if I try to go there it not only crashes IE, it knocks my wireless router off line.
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