CWA, Progressive Coalition Fights for Fair Election Financing in New York State

CWA is working with a coalition of progressive groups to urge New York State to establish public financing of state election campaigns.

CWA President Larry Cohen, NAACP President Ben Jealous, Greenpeace Executive Director Phil Radford, and other leaders of unions and progressive organizations met with Working Families Party officials in New York City today to push the New York Fair Elections effort forward.

Currently, New York City has a public system for financing elections, but in New York State, there are almost no restrictions on spending. Working Families and the coalition would like to make New York a model for expanding public financing on the national level. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has made the public financing of elections a key issue in his administration.

Cohen said in order to achieve true progressive change we need to engage in campaigns to tackle our fundamental democracy issues, which include the corrupting influence of money in politics, the systemic manipulation and suppression of voters in the electorate, and the undemocratic rules governing the Senate.

"It will be impossible to make progress on the core issues that progressive organizations fight for, like health care, retirement security, collective bargaining and organizing rights and good jobs, until we end the stranglehold that corporate money and the archaic senate rules have on our democracy," he said.

Cohen added, "We aren't under any illusions, these changes will be hard, but it's a fight worth fighting."