National Nurses United

ifornia Legislature that would establish this type of election sys- tem for statewide offices—what's often called "clean money" elections. But even if AB 583, sponsored by Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, were passed by the Legislature, reformers sus- pect it has little chance of getting signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. That's one of the reasons CNA is simultaneous- ly pursuing a ballot initiative for November. California would not be the first state to implement a pub- licly-financed election system. Maine, Arizona, New Mexico, Con- necticut, Vermont, North Carolina, and Massachusetts have passed forms of this program. Republicans, Democrats, and In- dependents have all made use of these systems. Local govern- ments want to join in as well. In February, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors moved toward a public financing system for mayoral elections. And Los Angeles and Santa Clarita are studying to do the same for their city councils. According to clean money proponents, it takes a few election cycles for the system to hit its stride and for candidates, espe- cially incumbents, to switch over to the new way of raising funds. But the early results have been positive and seem to indicate that publicly-financed candidates are, not surprisingly, more willing to fight for the public interest on tough issues like healthcare ac- cess than corporate-funded candidates. In Arizona's 2000 elections, the first cycle public financing was available, nine of 11 statewide elected officials ran "clean." In 2002, Arizona's citizens chose to elect as governor Janet Napoli- tano, a publicly-financed candidate, over Matt Salmon, who was traditionally funded by wealthy special interests. The same day she was sworn in, Napolitano issued an executive order to create a discount prescription drug subsidy for the elderly and disabled. In Maine, 78 percent of the current legislature participated in the clean election system, according to the Maine Commis- sion on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices, the agency which administers the program. Since the state started the sys- tem in 2000, legislators have passed a new prescription drug plan called Maine Rx+, through which all but Maine's wealthiest res- idents can buy drugs on the Medicaid list for the Medicaid price. The state has also passed laws requiring drug manufacturers to disclose how much they spend on advertising in Maine and the retail prices of drugs on receipts. Clean money proponents say these states are seeing different kinds of laws get passed because legislators can vote their con- How many times have you thought to your- self at work, "There oughta be a law"? In Maine, nurses who have won seats to the Legislature do make the rules, and several of them got there by using clean money election funds. ANNE PERRY, FNP Anne Perry, a family nurse practitioner in Calais, Maine, will always remember the moment she first considered running for office. She was seeing patients at work when the receptionist came in, her eyes as wide as saucers, and told Perry, "The Speaker of the House is on the phone and wants to talk to you." Perry thought the call was related to advocacy work she had been doing with a grassroots community group called Neighbors Against Drug Abuse. They were trying to figure out so- lutions to a huge problem of oxycontin and other prescription drug addictions among residents in rural Maine. But it wasn't about that. The Speaker asked her to run in 2004 for the Maine House of Represen- tatives. "My first reaction was, I can't do that, I have to work," said Perry, who has served on school boards before, but never a statewide seat. "But he started talking to me about the clean election fund, and that allowed me to think about this a lot more seriously." Perry did decide to run, and said she wouldn't have if it weren't for the clean money system. "I had trouble just asking for $5 donations from the people," said Perry. "As a nurse, I'll take care of people, but heaven forbid I should ask anything from them! It took me a while to be able to knock on doors. Once I got going, it was wonderful, getting to hear what people had to say. I guess that's my nursing background coming out, too." Perry's work paid off; she beat an incumbent for the seat. Her background as a nurse heavily in- fluences her approach to public policy. As just one example, the first piece of legisla- tion she introduced proposed establishing a central prescriptions database that med- ical providers can consult before prescrib- ing drugs to a patient if they suspect the Maine RNs Make the Rules "It's so important that nurses realize they really are in a very political career. I think nurses are totally unaware of and would be surprised by the onslaught of lobbying on legislators against our scope of practice." — K AY M C VAY, R N Feature Story 10 M A R C H 2 0 0 6 W W W . C A L N U R S E S . O R G C A L I F O R N I A N U R S E

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