Who should have power in a democracy? The power to shape the policy positions that politicians take? Or the power to shape what voters see and hear before casting their ballots?<\/p>\n
Sadly, we face an unequal reality that drowns out the voices of everyday Chicagoans. With super political action committees and outside groups having spent over $50 million in our March primary election, a familiar story is playing out: Wealthy and well-connected interests use donations to amass political influence, with working Chicagoans feeling shut out. Such as the single parent working two jobs to make ends meet, the senior on a fixed income, the recent graduate struggling to afford housing and healthcare.\n<\/p>\n
We routinely see money buying power, but we often don\u2019t see the ordinary people who are left behind. We see our mailboxes stuffed with glossy mailers sent by special interest groups and billionaires, but not the child from Englewood who sees the cost of elections and assumes that running for office is not for people like her. We see the big-dollar fundraisers filled with political elites, corporate executives and high-powered attorneys, but not the manufacturing worker from Little Village who decides not to run for office because the people on their contact list don\u2019t have money to spare.<\/p>\n
The problem of money in politics is not unique to Chicago. Across the nation, access to wealth has increasingly become a necessity for running for office. But when money is precisely what a person, a block or an entire community lacks, we are left again and again with the same problem: Money buys power, and ordinary people are left behind.<\/p>\n
But our story need not end in despair.<\/p>\n
Across the U.S., dozens of cities and states have transformed their democracies with voluntary public financing programs. These programs match small-dollar contributions with public money \u2014 empowering communities to not only compete for office but also to build power and win.\n<\/p>\n
New York City\u2019s public financing program, for example, helped increase donor participation in minority communities by as much as 24 times. And in Washington, D.C., its public financing program helped increase donor participation most dramatically in areas where more low-income and minority residents live. From Maine to Los Angeles, local governments are pushing big money out and bringing ordinary people in.\n<\/p>\n
Chicago is the biggest U.S. city without a public financing program. That\u2019s why we have worked with nearly two dozen community organizations to introduce the Fair Elections Ordinance<\/a>. The program would provide up to $200,000 in matching funds for aldermanic races, multiplying a $25 contribution into $325. From a small-dollar donation to a sizable contribution, the program would turn a donation from your grandma, baba or auntie into serious community power.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Lifting up the voices of working Chicagoans would make local leaders even more responsive to these Chicagoans\u2019 needs. More time devoted to building and preserving homes our neighbors can afford and to cutting red tape to help small businesses thrive. More energy devoted to passing laws to protect consumers from predatory businesses and to erecting guardrails to prevent artificial intelligence companies from collecting and selling our data for private gain.<\/p>\n Recently, many have remarked that our great city stands at a crossroads, ready to unshackle itself from the mistakes of the past but uncertain as to how. We believe that our ability to uplift and empower everyday Chicagoans will play a critical role in defining our future. A\u00a0future where more children from Austin, Roseland and Rogers Park can see a path to elected office to improve their family\u2019s conditions. A future where the needs of our working-class neighbors drive decision-making in every government office across Chicago.<\/p>\n The authors are members of Chicago\u2019s City Council. The Fair Elections Ordinance is sponsored by all five members of the Executive Board of the Chicago Progressive Reform Caucus: Maria Hadden, 49th; Andre V\u00e1squez, 40th; Mike Rodr\u00edguez, 22nd; Matt Martin, 47th; and Jeylu Guti\u00e9rrez, 14th.<\/p>\n Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here<\/a> or email letters@chicagotribune.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who should have power in a democracy? The power to shape the policy positions that politicians take? Or…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":878006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[241332,960,5386,1818,80433,92451],"class_list":["post-878005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-2026-midterm-elections","tag-chicago","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-political-action-committee","tag-super-pacs"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116776269748555820","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}