Campaign_Reform

Negative political campaigns, like the infamous "swift boat" campaign against presidential candidate John Kerry, are insidious and hard to combat. Unfortunately, such dirty tactics occur in local politics as well as on the national stage.

Such campaigns are generally carried out by Independent Expenditure Committees (IECs), who can raise and spend as much as they want to discredit a candidate or measure. The only restriction on their activities is that they must not coordinate their efforts with any candidate.

Negative political campaigns hurt democracy: they suppress voter turnout by causing voters to despair of finding a good candidate; they encourage emotional rather than reasoned voting; and they discourage qualifed candidates from even running for office.

It is because of such harm to the political proccess that the League of Women Voters of Marin County formed a Campaign Reform Committee to address the issue at a local level.

While IECs aren't illegal, we believe there should be greater transparency to their activities, so that voters can better assess the credibility of their allegations. See the right column for more on our reform efforts.

The LWVMC advocates the adoption, by the County Board of Supervisors, of a model ordinance to facilitate campaign reform, including regulating the activities of IECs.
>>Read proposed rules for IECs

>>KTVU Channel 2 News highlighted our efforts on October 2, enabling our message to reach a regional audience.

We created a flyer to educate voters about how to assess negative politcal tactics.
>>Get the "Assessing Ads" mailer

We created a 60-second PSA,
"Don't Be Duped by Negative Ads," which you can view on this page.

LWVMC produces a monthly half-hour public access TV show, The League Reports, that has featured Campaign Reform segments.
>See The League Reports videos

»Op Ed on Campaign Reform published in Marin IJ (May 2007)