[EL] HELP NEEDED: Local Clean Election Law for NY

[Sean Parnell]

So, to clarify - you are seeking the proper language for an ordinance that
will fund a campaign to make it more likely that the candidates supported by
some interests win and the candidates supported by other interests lose?

That seems... problematic.

Sean Parnell

-----Original Message-----
From: Law-election <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> On Behalf
Of Mike Ewall
Sent: Friday, August 23, 2019 3:27 PM
To: Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu>
Subject: [EL] HELP NEEDED: Local Clean Election Law for NY


Hi all,

Is there anyone on this list who could help me design a local Clean
Elections Law for a Town in the state of New York? The objective is to make
it harder for a corporate polluter to take over the town in the election
this November. We'd have a majority willing to pass the law soon if we can
get it crafted.

Here's a little background on the situation.

First, I'm new to this list, having just learned about it from Richard
Winger. I'm the Executive Director of a national environmental justice group
called Energy Justice Network. We help communities stop dirty energy and
waste industries, among other things.

In the past two years, I've been working with residents to stop plans by the
world's largest cement corporation (LafargeHolcim) to burn trash from 50-70
Connecticut towns in the huge cement kiln next to a high school in the Town
of Coeymans, New York (Albany County). We got that stopped in late 2017, but
then the company doubled down on wanting to burn tires there, which we
stopped when the Town hired me to draft a Clean Air Law, which was passed in
late March 2019. It was passed in a 3-2 vote of the Town Board. It happens
that the three YES votes are Democrats who are all up for election this
year. The others are both Republicans who almost voted the right way, but
did not. The company's stooges are trying to take over the town in this
year's election, and they only need to win one seat to overturn our Clean
Air Law. The sitting Dems seem willing to pass a Clean Elections Law if we
can draft one for them quickly.

My thoughts on this so far are that we'd need something that fits the
situation and isn't likely to get caught up in lengthy legal challenges. It
has to be something that a local government in NY can pass. We should also
recognize that the Town probably doesn't have a lot of money to be putting
into publicly financing the election in any way. While I'm pretty familiar
with an array of needed election reforms at various levels of government,
the only one that seems particularly relevant to this situation right now
would be something where the Town would make very public the campaign
contribution data that is already having to be reported to the state/county
government. 
This might mean paying for a mailing to all voters, having something in the
local paper, and/or having prominent signs outside of polling locations
stating who received what money from which interests.

I'm open to other suggestions, and could use help in drafting any of this,
since I haven't written these sorts of laws before.

Please feel free to call or email me to discuss.

Best,

Mike Ewall, Esq.
Executive Director
Energy Justice Network
215-436-9511
mike at energyjustice.net
http://www.energyjustice.net


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