democracy nc

Voter registration has increased by more than a quarter-million people in North Carolina in 2008, an election reform group said Monday as it warned of long lines come Election Day unless early voting is expanded.

Democracy NC sent this out on Sen. Obama's opt out of public financing:

Statement from Bob Hall, Executive Director of Democracy North Carolina, regarding Barack Obama’s decision to forego participation in presidential public financing program:

Senator Obama’s decision is predictable, given the shortcomings of the presidential public financing program and his capacity to raise money from private sources. The current program lacks the carrots and sticks – the incentives and penalties – to attract and sustain participation by major party candidates.

Tired of politicians and the money chase?

The Onslow County Democratic Party held their annual convention on Saturday, April 14th, 2007.

Items of note:

• Mr. Billy Mills, Ms. Kever Clark, Mr. Ernest Wright, Ms. Elizabeth Koen, Mr. John Burns and myself were elected as the new leadership team.
• Ms. Jennifer Frye of Democracy N.C. was the guest speaker. She talked about the importance of getting youth involved in politics. One of the ways to do that is by funding elections with public money. If elections were conducted with equal amounts of money distributed, candidates would not need to "dial for dollars" and could engage the constituency. (For more information on Democracy NC read this post at BlueNC.)

 
The folks at Democracy NC have been busy. They just released a report showing that:

Lobbyists prowling the halls of the NC General Assembly received nearly $15 million from their clients in 2005, the year with the last “long session.” That amounts to $86,400 for each of the 170 legislators

According to Bob Hall, Executive Director and Research Director:

In North Carolina, interest groups actually spend more on lobbying than their PACs spend on campaign contributions to state legislators

Just last week Democracy NC announced a new campaign with a unique website called CleanUpRaleigh.com to promote "Clean, Voter Owned Elections" supporting public financing of campaigns to reduce the influence of special interest money.

Hi, all. I'm not a N Carolinian, I'm with DC for Democracy. But please take a minute to read.

I was wondering if anyone could help pump up, organize, or publicize our now-nationwide "Change the Course in Iraq" initiative.

DCFD has spearheaded a campaign, with DFA's help, to gather 218 signatures for the Discharge Petition for H Res 543, which would force the House to debate the current situation in Iraq for the first time since 2002. (We are currently at 95.) Under H Res 543, any and every proposed amendment must be considered and voted upon.