The Initiative Will Create a Non-Partisan Citizens Commission to Support an Amendment to The U.S. Constitution to End the Influence of Big Money in U.S. Elections
BOSTON, MA – Early in July, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin received more than 20,000 new certified signatures for the People Govern, Not Money Initiative Petition. This latest signature-gathering effort follows a successful drive for more than 80,000 signatures from all of the cities and towns in Massachusetts that the campaign delivered in November. The effort succeeded in putting Initiative 2 on track to appear on the 2018 ballot—Yes on 2! The Initiative asks voters to establish a non-partisan Citizens Commission to advance the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to address the undue influence of concentrated money on elections and government policy. The Constitutional amendment would overturn the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which struck down the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act and other campaign finance laws under a theory that corporations, unions, and the wealthy have a free speech right to spend unlimited money to influence elections and that corporations have the same inalienable rights as human beings.
In 2012 and again in 2014, the Massachusetts legislature passed cross-partisan resolutions supporting the 28th Amendment and calling on the U.S. Congress to pass the amendment and send it to the states for ratification. More than 150 cities and towns in Massachusetts have likewise passed such resolutions. Versions of the 28th Amendment to overturn Citizens United have more than 40 co-sponsors in the US Senate and 150 co-sponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The People Govern, Not Money initiative will create the first-in-the-nation non-partisan 15-member Citizens Commission which will research, take testimony, provide reports and make recommendations to assist in the drafting, promoting, proposing and ratifying of the 28th Amendment. The Citizen Commission will provide accurate information about the influence of money in Massachusetts politics; recommend language of the Constitutional amendment; and prepare Massachusetts to ratify the amendment when it is passed by Congress. By utilizing volunteers to serve on the Citizen Commission, there will be no cost to taxpayers.
19 states and over 800 cities and towns have passed 28th Amendment resolutions with cross-partisan support. In Montana and Colorado, voters have approved 28th Amendment ballot initiatives by 75-25 percent. Vote Yes on 2!
Currently, volunteer-led signature gathering efforts are underway in Wyoming in order to place an initiative calling for the 28th Amendment on the ballot in 2018 as well.
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People Govern, Not Money is a volunteer-led signature gathering effort working to advance the 28th Amendment to affirm that We the People – not big money, not unions, not corporations – govern the United States. The group includes Massachusetts citizens of various political affiliations, demographic backgrounds from towns across the state, volunteering their time to make the 28th Amendment a reality. Learn more and volunteer at www.PeopleGovernNotMoney.org
American Promise, a national non-partisan, non-profit organization is supporting citizen led initiatives in 50 states with one goal: winning the 28th Amendment to get big money out of politics. American Promise inspires, empowers, and organizes Americans from across the political spectrum to build support for the 28th Amendment community by community, state by state, to drive the Amendment out of Congress and to the States for ratification. To learn more about American Promise and to help this cause, visit www.AmericanPromise.net
