Aloha! The same rich folks and corporations have been calling the shots in Honolulu for far too long. It's time for a candidate that is unbought and unbossed to run for Honolulu Mayor. Someone who doesn't just say that they care, but actually does. Someone who has been in politics of all kinds , including elected office, for over 40 years and has never taken a dime from corporations. Not many people can say that. Someone who was Chair of the Hawaii County Council. Someone who puts people first, stands for open government, and has a long track record of working for a just and sustainable society. A Green. Someone who has never given up. She just keeps changing strategies and searching for new ways to make a positive difference. If you want REAL change, and not just smoke and mirrors, and tinkering on the edges while unmet problems continue to worsen, then *please* ask Keiko Bonk to run for Mayor. Or we can continue to expend lots of time, energy, and resources to play defense while special interests dump tons of money into the same old politicians - winning some battles, but losing many more in the long run. We really do need our best candidate to run if we’re going to win the race for Honolulu Mayor in 2016. Getting Keiko Bonk to run is our best chance to get a truly progressive mayor, and to put support for working families and the middle class at the top of the City and County of Honolulu agenda. I hope you’ll join me in saying #RunBonkRun Thanks! Frank DeGiacomo

Partisan redistricting steals all of our votes and our voices. It is like the fox guarding the hen house.

Over the last 5 years Governor Christie's Economic Development Authority has given $5.4 BILLION to the wealthiest and most politically connected .01 percent of New Jersey corporations – at a cost to our underfunded schools, crumbling roads and bridges, the state pension fund and struggling property taxpayers. Enough! J.P. Morgan. Lockheed Martin. Prudential. Panasonic. Citibank – all of them have received tens of millions in public dollars from Chris Christie. In exchange for tax cuts, they are supposedly creating jobs. But we have no idea whether they are actually doing so, because Chris Christie has never even bothered to ask them, despite being required to by law. In many cases we know for a fact that corporations just moved jobs from town to town. The worst, like Citibank and Campbell’s Soup, took the tax breaks and laid people off anyway. Here’s the worst part: every dollar doled out to Prudential is a dollar that can’t be spent fixing a bridge, paying a schoolteacher, or making college more affordable. While giving out billions in subsidies with one hand, Governor Christie has cut property tax credits for middle-class families and the Earned Income Tax Credit for people struggling on the brink with the other. These reckless subsidies have skewed our state budgets out of balance and put the interests of NJ’s richest residents and corporations ahead of the rest. Enough is enough.

A basket of Supreme Court opinions, culminating in Reynolds v. Sims diluted the representation in rural counties in thirty states in 1964. Up until that decision, California, and many other states, had roughly one state senator for each county. This was consistent with the Connecticut Compromise as implemented in Article I, Sections 2 and 3 of the US Constitution where the House of Representatives is determined by population and the Senate is comprised of two individuals from each state ensuring small or less populous states have an equal footing in Congress. The Warren Court in 1964 invalidated this form of government for thirty states by manufacturing the doctrine of “one man, one vote” from the 14th Amendment which used population as the sole arbiter of representation in both houses of the state legislature.

We need to help Mrs Clinton as to whom will be her running mate in the 2016 Presidential Election

We the people are no longer represented by the people in Congress elected to represent us. 95 percent of the population demand that big money be removed from our political process. We want democracy and true representative government restored! We will add an amendment to the Constitution limiting the amount of money being dumped into our political process by large, wealthy special interest groups and Congress will represent the people once more!

Initiative-122, Honest Elections Seattle, will amplify the voices of ordinary people and protect Seattle’s government and elections from the corrupting influence of big money. It would implement strong contribution limits and total spending caps for city elections. Honest Elections Seattle also features an innovative public financing system for all city offices – including mayor, city attorney, and at-large and district city council people to restore the power of small donors in elections. Together, these reforms will limit the corrosive impacts of big money in politics and ensure our elections aren’t controlled by a narrow set of wealthy people. You can read the full text of the initiative here: http://fusewashington.org/blog/Honest%20Elections%20Seattle%20Petition%202015.pdf Join us and let’s work together to ensure honest, accountable, and transparent elections in the city of Seattle.

During an all-important presidential election year when turnout is at its heaviest, it is absolutely critical that all Ohio voters receive an absentee ballot application. In 2012, the first time that all voters received an absentee ballot application, approximately one-third of all statewide votes cast their ballots prior to Election Day, primarily by mail. Failure to provide for the money for this mailing is particularly troubling because the legislature prohibited the Secretary of State and local boards of elections from sending out unsolicited absentee applications with passage of SB 205 in 2014. The legislature designated itself as the sole gatekeeper for deciding whether all voters will receive absentee ballots applications in any given year.

Idaho families are at risk of losing child support funding after conservatives in the Legislature killed a measure that would have brought the state into compliance with federal rules. Gov. Otter and ID lawmakers must pass the bill before it's too late.

It appears that some 2016 presidential hopefuls are defying campaign finance laws and raising huge sums of money through Super PACs, 527s and other political committees disguised as sham nonprofits, by claiming they're not candidates or even "testing the waters." Governor Jeb Bush's Right To Rise Super PAC has set a fundraising goal of $100 million, but hasn’t said what for (I wonder!). Meanwhile, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker bragged at an event in Iowa: "You know, the process tells us that legally we have to say we are 'exploring,' because the minute you say something else, a whole series of things happen. So as we 'explore,' we will come back many more times." Supposedly they’re just private citizens raising millions and millions of dollars in donations. More likely, their real goal is to dodge contribution limits, coordination restrictions, and disclosure requirements meant to prevent corruption.

Because we love America and our democratic way of life, election day should be revered and recognized as our most important national holiday.

Our government is being taken over by Big Money. Yet the vote will cancel out money every time. The low percentage of voters is a disgrace and embarrassing, but more importantly the results of elections these days do not reflect the majority of Americans and the policies that most Americans support. Just the talk of making Election Day a national holiday will start a conversation around voting.