[toeslist] FW: * A Major Victory for Local Democracy in Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 02:04:49 -0500 (CDT) _____ From: Paul Cienfuegos [mailto:cienfuegos@igc.org] Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2006 11:34 AM To: Recipient List Suppressed: Subject: * A Major Victory for Local Democracy in Humboldt County... Greetings to friends across the US and beyond, Today was primary election day in California, and the latest Humboldt ballot initiative spawned by the groundbreaking work of Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County (DUHC) has succeeded once again - this time a Humboldt County-wide ballot initiative: "Measure T: the Ordinance to Protect Our Rights to Fair Elections and Local Democracy". The final vote tally was YES 18,705 54.60% NO 15,553 45.40% Below, you'll find a brand new article that was written today for the Nation magazine about Measure T. More info at the two following local websites: http://VoteLocalControl.org and http://DUHC.org and Be well, y'all, and i encourage all who are reading this good news to pass it on widely to your own e-lists, and to congratulate the Measure T team (which i'm not involved with) for all their great work. be well, Paul Cienfuegos Arcata (actually now in nearby Manila), California PS. And for those of you who paid close attention a few years ago when our newly elected and progressive district attorney, Paul Gallegos, was hit with a recall election campaign after serving just a few months in office, which was almost entirely funded by Maxxam/Pacific Lumber Corp, you'll all be delighted to hear that Paul (who actively supported Measure T) was re-elected this evening by a margin of 52.81% to 47.07%, beating one of his employees who ran a very nasty and lie-filled campaign against his boss. A very fine election result for those who care about genuine democracy in Humboldt County. Hooray! PPS. And for those of you who may be curious as to why you've heard so little from me lately: I am finally beginning to emerge from a two-year hibernation from political organizing, having just spent all of that time building myself a home finally, on the edge of dunes and wild wetlands near Arcata. Over the next few months, i'll be reaching out to all of you again, sharing my newest public talk and workshop offerings. Stay tuned... ---------- Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 00:13:21 -0700 (PDT) From: Liberty Tree Subject: LTNews ~ Major Victory for Local Democracy! We have it in our power to begin the world over again. ~ Thomas Paine JOIN TODAY: LIBERTY TREE Foundation for the Democratic Revolution Liberty Tree News 2.7 June 6, 2006 Spread the word: MEASURE T ADOPTED! A Major Victory for Local Democracy! Today was election day in northern California, and today 55% of Humboldt County voters spoke clearly in adopting the language of Measure T: "Only natural persons possess civil and political rights. Corporations are creations of state law and possess no legitimate civil or political rights . . . . The people of Humboldt County make the affirmative legislative finding that corporate contributions in elections are imminently undermining our democratic processes, and are denigrating rather than protecting First Amendment interests . . . . " A California county has banned outside corporations from investing in local politics, and in the process, the people of that county have made their own constitutional ruling: Human beings, not corporations, possess constitutional rights. What you can do? Support the campaign in Humboldt County. Invest in Liberty Tree's efforts to build a local democracy movement nationwide. And read John Nichols' account of the victory . . . Citizens 1, Corporations 0 By John Nichols, The Nation, June 6, 2006 In states across the country Tuesday, primary elections named candidates for Congress, governorships and other important offices. But the most interesting, and perhaps significant, election did not involve an individual. Rather, it was about an idea. In Northern California's Humboldt County, voters decided by a 55-45 margin that corporations do not have the same rights -- based on the supposed "personhood" of the combines -- as citizens when it comes to participating in local political campaigns. Until Tuesday in Humboldt County, corporations were able to claim citizenship rights, as they do elsewhere in the United States. In the context of electoral politics, corporations that were not headquartered in the county took advantage of the same rules that allowed individuals who are not residents to make campaign contributions in order to influence local campaigns. But, with the passage of Measure T, an initiative referendum that was placed on the ballot by Humboldt County residents, voters have signaled that they want out-of-town corporations barred from meddling in local elections. Measure T was backed by the county's Green and Democratic parties, as well as labor unions and many elected officials in a region where politics are so progressive that the Greens -- whose 2004 presidential candidate, David Cobb, is a resident of the county and a active promotor of the challenges to corporate power mounted by Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County and the national Liberty Tree Foundation -- are a major force in local politics. The "Yes on T" campaign was rooted in regard for the American experiment, from its slogan "Vote Yes for Local Control of Our Democracy," to the references to Tuesday's election as a modern-day "Boston Tea Party," to the quote from Thomas Jefferson that was highlighted in election materials: "I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country." Just as Jefferson and his contemporaries were angered by dominance of the affairs of the American colonies by King George III and the British business combines that exploited the natural and human resources of what would become the United States, so Humboldt County residents were angered by the attempts of outside corporate interests to dominate local politics. Wal-Mart spent $250,000 on a 1999 attempt to change the city of Eureka's zoning laws in order to clear the way for one of the retail giant's big-box stores. Five years later, MAXXAM Inc., a forest products company, got upset with the efforts of local District Attorney Paul Gallegos to enforce regulations on its operations in the county and spent $300,000 on a faked-up campaign to recall him from office. The same year saw outside corporations that were interested in exploiting the county's abundant natural resources meddling in its local election campaigns. That was the last straw for a lot of Humboldt County residents. They organized to put Measure T on the ballot, declaring, "Our Founding Fathers never intended corporations to have this kind of power." "Every person has the right to sign petition recalls and to contribute money to political campaigns. Measure T will not affect these individual rights," explained Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, a resident of Eureka who was one of the leaders of the Yes on T campaign. "But individuals hold these political rights by virtue of their status as humans in a democracy and, simply put, a corporation is not a person." Despite the logic of that assessment, the electoral battle in Humboldt County was a heated one, and Measure T's passage will not end it. Now, the corporate campaign will move to the courts. So this is only a start. But what a monumental start it is! Sopoci-Belknap was absolutely right when she portrayed Tuesday's vote as nothing less than the beginning of "the process of reclaiming our county" from the "tyranny" of concentrated economic and political power. Surely Tom Paine would have agreed. It was Paine who suggested to the revolutionaries of 1776, as they dared challenge the most powerful empire on the planet, that: "We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation similar to the present hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The birthday of the new world is at hand, and a race of men, perhaps as numerous as all Europe contains, are to receive their portion of freedom from the events of a few months." It is time to renew the American experiment, to rebuild its battered institutions on the solid foundation of empowered citizens and regulated corporations. Let us hope that the spirit of '76 prevailed Tuesday in Humboldt County will spread until that day when American democracy is guided by the will of the people rather than the campaign contribution checks of the corporations that are the rampaging "empires" of our age. John Nichols is the Washington Correspondent for The Nation. Click here to read the original article. Find out more about Measure T and support Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County's ongoing work. Find out more about Liberty Tree's Local Democracy Program, and our upcoming Local Democracy Convention. _____ JOIN TODAY: LIBERTY TREE Foundation for the Democratic Revolution IMPORTANT - If someone forwarded this message to you, you likely are not subscribed to the Liberty Tree News service. To receive the Liberty Tree News, you must subscribe yourself at: http://www.libertytreefdr.org/mailSubscribe.htm _____ Our postal address is P.O. Box 260217 Madison, Wisconsin 53726-0217 United States