National, State, and City Groups Applaud Broad-Based Candidate Support for Improving Philadelphia's Campaign Finance System

Philadelphia, PA - Twenty-nine candidates for city office in Philadelphia, including four candidates for mayor and eight incumbent Members of the City Council, have signed a pledge to create a system of comprehensive public financing for city races. The signers of the Fair and Clean Elections Pledge were announced today by a coalition of public interest groups.

The language of the pledge is modeled on full public financing of elections laws in seven states and two cities, and a bipartisan bill introduced in the U.S. Senate by Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Arlen Specter (R-PA).

Mayoral candidates State Rep. Dwight Evans (D), Congressman Chaka Fattah (D), former City Councilman Michael Nutter (D), and Al Taubenberger (R) all signed.

The groups - Common Cause Pennsylvania, MoveOn.org Political Action, Philadelphia Forward, and Public Campaign Action Fund - have close to 25,000 members in Philadelphia between them. They were joined by YoungPhillyPolitics.com, a blog that tracks city politics, in releasing the full list of signers.

"Many candidates talk about fixing Philadelphia's campaign finance laws," said David Donnelly, national campaigns director for Public Campaign Action Fund, a national nonprofit group dedicated to passing comprehensive public financing laws. "These 29 candidates who have signed this pledge are saying that they wish to put voters before donors when it comes to governing this city. As we've done in states and cities around the country, we look forward to working with our members, interested voters, organizations, and elected officials to develop, adopt and implement a Clean Elections law that is right for the citizens of Philadelphia."

"We have already taken a strong step towards making our elections cleaner and fairer," Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg of YoungPhillyPolitics.com said. "But now it is time to finish the job, and make Philly a model for cities for others to follow. Do we really want New York, with its partial public financing law, to have a fairer system for their elections than ours? We can do better than that."

"The people of Philadelphia will always pay for municipal elections - either in a transparent and open manner up front, or as we always have on the back end, paying for the shenanigans that accompany the pay-to-play culture that has imposed its corruption tax on the city," added Brett Mandel, executive director of Philadelphia FORWARD. "It is time to take the final steps toward ending this system."

The groups also urged candidates who had not yet signed to add their names to the list of pledge signers before next Thursday, May 10th. On that day, many of the groups will educate their members where candidates stand on this pledge via email.

"Common Cause commends the candidates who have pledged to support a comprehensive Fair and Clean Elections system, when elected," said Common Cause Pennsylvania executive director Barry Kauffman. "By signing the Fair and Clean Elections pledge, these candidates have promised that one of their highest goals will be to end the corrupt practices that permeate Philadelphia government - practices that are inextricably linked to the way political campaigns are financed here."

"Elections in Philadelphia should be about all voters, not just those who can afford to write large checks to candidates," said Noah T. Winer, campaign director for MoveOn.org Political Action, and a Philadelphia resident. "On behalf of the nearly 20,000 city residents that are members of MoveOn, we thank those candidates who have already signed the Fair and Clean Elections Pledge, and urge the rest of the field to join them in putting voters first."

The pledge and a list of signatories can be found at http://www.campaignmoney.org/philadelphiapledge/signers.

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