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

[Adav Noti]

Only the Supreme Court is allowed to do that.


> On Aug 26, 2019, at 9:23 AM, Sean Parnell <sean at impactpolicymanagement.com> wrote:
> 
> 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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