Fifty years ago, Alaska’s constitution and statehood empowered us Alaskans to manage our own state. Since then, however, big money from powerful corporations and special interests have acquired far too much influence over our elections and, therefore, over our political process. The recent scandals with our legislators and their relationships with the oil industry show this in a way that cannot be denied.

It’s time we Alaskans did something to stop that.

The first step took place this past winter when more than 33,000 Alaskans signed an initiative petition to establish a Clean Elections program for Alaska. As the next step, we will have the opportunity to adopt the Clean Elections Initiative into law by voting yes on Ballot Measure 3 on th Aug. 26 primary election ballot.

Clean Elections is a voluntary, public-private funding program for state elections. It is designed to reduce the influence of special interest money, so that elections are about ideas — not who can raise the most dollars. Corruption, and the appearance of corruption because of large political campaign contributions will be diminished. Clean Elections levels the playing field so regular people, those who are not independently wealthy, will actually have a fair chance to stand for election, and elected officials will be accountable to the voters in their districts and not to big-money donors.

This program is a strong, fairly comprehensive reform of campaign financing that will work within the framework of existing campaign finance law.

The Clean Elections system has a proven track record of reducing the big special interest money and raising meaningful issues that reflect people’s values and needs. The system enjoys enormous public support in states where it has been implemented.

Democracy requires constant vigilance. The Clean Election initiative looks like our best opportunity to make the next major improvement in our democracy. It is an eminently achievable first step in transferring our democracy from the hands of big money to the hands of the people.

To learn more about this subject, please visit www.alaskansforcleanelections.org, or call 230-5617 in Anchorage.