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C A L I F O R N I A N U R S E W W W . C A L N U R S E S . O R G M A R C H 2 0 0 6 9 tame the influence of corporate contributions, significant re- forms, such as establishing a single-payer healthcare system, have little chance of winning. "A good portion of our nurses have never thought of them- selves as politically motivated or needing to have a political agen- da," said McVay, "but it's so important that nurses realize they really are in a very political career. I think nurses are totally un- aware of and would be surprised by the onslaught of lobbying on legislators against our scope of practice." To reform this dysfunctional system, CNA in January filed an initiative that would establish in California a publicly-financed system of elections for statewide officials, and simultaneously limit corporate and other private contributions to candidate cam- paigns, and cap corporate donations to initiative cam- paigns. If CNA collects the necessary signatures, the "California Nurses Clean Money and Fair Elections Act of 2006" would appear for a vote on the November ballot. Under a publicly-financed system of elections, candidates who voluntarily agree to limit their spending, reject money from pri- vate sources, and meet eligibility requirements can qualify for public grants to run their campaigns. The requirements include collecting a certain number of signatures from constituents and raising a certain dollar amount of $5 donations from supporters. The money to pay for public elections would come primarily from a slight increase in the corporate tax rate from 8.84 per- cent to 9.04 percent. (See CNA's website at www.calnurses.org for more detailed initiative information.) At the same time, CNA is supporting a bill pending in the Cal- A s a registered nurse for more than 45 years, Kay McVay is reminded on a daily basis why nurses should care about cleaning corporate money out of our political process. There's that day that California's CNA- sponsored ratio bill came up for a critical vote. Dozens of hospital lobbyists in suits were milling outside the legislators' chamber doors, whispering in their ears and pulling them aside to convince them to support killing the bill. There's that young ER nurse who told her about the family whose child died from epiglottitus because they didn't get to the ER sooner. Uninsured, they had already been rejected from two previous ERs, even though that practice is illegal. Then there's her own difficulty in figuring out the new Medicare prescription drug benefit for herself and her husband, Richard. Her brother and sister-in-law in Ore- gon, both intelligent people, can't figure out the program either. "I just threw up my hands and went with Kaiser and hoped they wouldn't take advantage of me," said McVay, a past presi- dent of CNA and longtime ICU RN. To McVay, these sorry situations all represent the domination by corporate interests over public interests. The main way cor- porations and lobbyists exert this control is by contributing the large sums of money that legislators need to get elected and by swamping the initiative process. If we don't transform this cur- rent model, says McVay, nurses won't be able to do their jobs and patients won't have access to healthcare. If we don't eliminate or Nursing Democracy Nursing Democracy Nursing Democracy STAFF REPORT CNA RNs launch a clean money elections campaign to kick corporations out of Sacramento and put the people back in charge