{"id":30788,"date":"2012-10-23T21:02:31","date_gmt":"2012-10-24T03:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=30788"},"modified":"2013-06-04T23:28:02","modified_gmt":"2013-06-05T05:28:02","slug":"colorado-ballot-propositions-2012-amendment-65","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/23\/colorado-ballot-propositions-2012-amendment-65.html","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Ballot Propositions 2012: Amendment 65"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/citizens-united_checks-balances.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-30792\" title=\"Citizens United - Checks and Balances\" src=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/citizens-united_checks-balances-300x237.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"237\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/citizens-united_checks-balances-300x237.png 300w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/citizens-united_checks-balances.png 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>So far we&#8217;ve had Civil Service reform (weakening) in Amendment S, and Marijuana Legalization in Amendment 64. \u00a0Tonight, the last statewide initiative on the ballot: Amendment 65, the (kinda-sorta) Campaign Finance Reform initiative.<\/p>\n<p>So here&#8217;s the problem:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A lot of people agree that excess money from individuals and organizations distorts the political process, giving undue influence on the electorate, and undue influence on beholden office-seekers. \u00a0Even where corruption doesn&#8217;t actually occur, the very <em>appearance<\/em>\u00a0of corruption is corrosive to the process.<\/li>\n<li>The Supreme Court says that <em>money = speech<\/em>, and that <em>corporations = people<\/em>, so any sort of limits on campaign financing in statutory law are limited and (if challenged) dubious at best.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Amendment 65 tackles this problem. Sort of. It doesn&#8217;t actually <em>do<\/em>\u00a0anything, but it&#8217;s meant to send a &#8220;message&#8221;:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>It instructs the Colorado congressional delegation to propose and support a US constitutional amendment that would allow the feds and states to limit campaign contributions and spending.<\/li>\n<li>It instructs the state legislature to pass any US constitutional amendment that gets proposed to that end.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/corporate-speech.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-30791\" title=\"Corporate Speech\" src=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/corporate-speech-300x235.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"235\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/corporate-speech-300x235.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/corporate-speech.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Which is all very nice, but even a state constitutional amendment cannot actually compel an elected representative (federal or state) to vote a certain way. \u00a0So this Amendment is largely a feel-good &#8220;sense of the people&#8221; kind of thing &#8212; a political statement by the populace to future state and federal representatives.<\/p>\n<p>On the one hand, that seems fairly useless (the arguments against suggest that the effort would be better placed electing congressional representatives that support this proposal). \u00a0On the other hand, it <em>is<\/em>\u00a0a statement of the will of the people, to be flouted (should the opportunity arise) at some peril. On the gripping hand, yes, is this really something we need to be embedding in the state constitution &#8212; a non-binding &#8220;will of the people&#8221; of those who went to the polls in 2012?<\/p>\n<p>(I&#8217;m not going to argue the merits of campaign finance and spending reform. I tend to believe in its need and disbelieve that any sort of system will ever be effective in restricting it save for a completely publicly funded campaign setup, which will introduce its own distortions and challenges.)<\/p>\n<p>My net-net recommendation is in support of Amendment 65, to vote &#8220;Yes&#8221; on it. \u00a0I&#8217;m not altogether happy with either what it will <em>actually<\/em>\u00a0do, nor with cluttering up the state constitution with such things (really, if there&#8217;s a candidate for a legislative proposition, rather than constitutional one, this is it).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/free-speech.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-30793\" title=\"Free Speech\" src=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/free-speech-300x275.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"275\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/free-speech-300x275.gif 300w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/free-speech.gif 312w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>But I think the basic principle of trying to stem the tide of millionaires, billionaires, and shadowy consortia thereof flooding the airwaves and mailboxes with whatever lying crap they want to (on <em>any<\/em> particular side of any particular race) and having that be the most prominent emblem of &#8220;free speech&#8221; in our land\u00a0seems a worthy philosophical effort. <strong>I will vote &#8220;Yes&#8221; on Amendment 65.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So far we&#8217;ve had Civil Service reform (weakening) in Amendment S, and Marijuana Legalization in Amendment 64. \u00a0Tonight, the last statewide initiative on the ballot: Amendment 65, the (kinda-sorta) Campaign Finance Reform initiative. So here&#8217;s the problem: A lot of people agree that excess money from individuals and organizations distorts the political process, giving undue &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/23\/colorado-ballot-propositions-2012-amendment-65.html\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Colorado Ballot Propositions 2012: Amendment 65&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[35,133,99,371],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-big-business","category-censorship","category-elections-2012","category-war-on-drugs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/free-speech.gif","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31259,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/07\/and-in-local-colorado-electoral-news.html","url_meta":{"origin":30788,"position":0},"title":"And in local Colorado electoral news","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 7-Nov-12 7:29am","format":false,"excerpt":"Besides voting overall for Obama, here's what else went on last night in Colorado (of interest to me, at least): 1. It appears Mike Coffman has clearly beat Joe Miklosi to return to Washington in CO-6. \u00a0A shame, but on the bright side Coffman has been a proponent of defense\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30020,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/29\/colorado-personhood-comes-up-short-for-the-november-ballot.html","url_meta":{"origin":30788,"position":1},"title":"Colorado Personhood comes up short for the November ballot","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 29-Aug-12 1:15pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Have to say I'm pleased by this, both because it means we won't have this on the ballot yet again (plus the finite chance that it could have passed), and because it indicates there's not enough support out there for them to have made it happen.I do expect a nasty\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23382,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/11\/02\/money-finds-a-way-but-why-make-it-easy.html","url_meta":{"origin":30788,"position":2},"title":"Money finds a way, but why make it easy?","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 2-Nov-11 9:31am","format":false,"excerpt":"The cynic in me knows that money always finds a way in the electoral process. Decades of campaign finance reform made that clear. But with the SCOTUS decisions that (a) money = free speech and (b) corporations are people who should have unlimited spending (\"free speech\"), affairs have gotten completely\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/images0-focus-opensocial.googleusercontent.com\/gadgets\/proxy?container=focus&gadget=a&resize_h=100&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthinkprogress.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F11%2Fcorporations1-300x245.png","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13689,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/10\/22\/colorado_ballot_propositi.html","url_meta":{"origin":30788,"position":3},"title":"Colorado ballot propositions","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 22-Oct-08 2:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I touched on this topic a month back, but I've finished going through the ballot proper, and here are my thoughts. \u00a0 First, a side note: Damn, I am...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Elections 2008&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/voting-butterfly.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13602,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/11\/05\/colorado_ballot_propositi-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":30788,"position":4},"title":"Colorado Ballot Propositions &#8211; Recap","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 5-Nov-08 12:20pm","format":false,"excerpt":"For the most part, my vote \"No\" was echoed by most Colorado voters. My vote [State vote]\u00a0 * AMENDMENT 46 -\u00a0Colorado Civil Rights Initiative\u00a0- Would prohibit the state from granting...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Elections 2008&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12851,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/09\/17\/colorado_ballot_initiativ.html","url_meta":{"origin":30788,"position":5},"title":"Colorado ballot initiatives","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 17-Sep-08 11:42am","format":false,"excerpt":"BD notes the current array of ballot initiatives coming up here in Colorado this fall. I've really not paid much attention to them as yet, and don't know much beyond...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Elections 2008&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30788"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37404,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30788\/revisions\/37404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}