Senate Journal: Page 38: Tuesday, January 11, 2000

  We also build trust by the process we use to elect public officials.  Iowa
  needs more
  campaign disclosure and campaign finance reform.

  Voters need fuller disclosure.  They ought to be able to find out who is
  financing
  any candidate.  We should require full disclosure up to Election Day of
  contributions
  and expenditures?  Iowans ought to be able to find out who is paying for the
  telephone
  calls used in a campaign-especially those annoying push poll calls.  We
  should require
  a disclaimer at the end of each call, identifying who is paying for the
  call.

  At some point, the money madness in politics must stop.  Campaigns for
  governor
  should not be about money raised, but issues answered.  There is a better
  way.  Iowa
  should make available public funds, not from tax revenues, but from earned
  interest, to
  candidates for governor who voluntarily agree to limit their spending and
  who have
  broad based support.  Our agenda is about government of, by, and for the
  people-not
  government of, by, and for thousands, tens of thousands or millions of
  dollars in
  contributions.  Better disclosure, public financing, limited spending of
  governor's races
  and term limits for governors put the people back in charge.

  Will quality of life delivered through a more accountable government lead to
  more
  Iowans, younger Iowans and better paid Iowans?  Let me tell you the story of
  Bruce
  Banister of Jefferson, who sells classical guitars through the Internet.
  He's open
  24 hours a day, and epitomizes the new way to be responsive to customers.
  Bruce grew up in Jefferson, and spent years in Spain studying classical
  guitar.  He
  later went to Germany, where he taught and performed.  He began buying and
  selling
  finely made classical guitars to an esoteric group of buyers worldwide.  He
  met and
  married photographer Carola Wicenti there, and she agreed to move back to
  Iowa in
  the summer of 1998.  Bruce realized that his website-based business could be
  headquartered anywhere.  If you want to find him, just type in
  classicalguitarnet.com.
  He says he moved back for Iowa's open spaces slower-paced life, and to be
  close to
  family.
  Quality government is Iowa's promise to Bruce and Carola.  Welcome back to
  Iowa.
  The last part of the quality of life agenda I'll mention today is perhaps
  the most
  basic.  It doesn't do any good to improve education, clean up the
  environment, prevent
  disease, and create a larger and smarter work force if our communities
  aren't safe.
  Safe communities are one of Iowa's basic strengths.  To ensure our safe
  communities,
  we must reduce the supply and demand for illegal drugs.  I remain committed
  to a plan
  we worked on last year to fight the methamphetamine epidemic by adding six
  new
  narcotics agents to the Department of Public Safety this year.  These agents
  will make
  inroads in our war against methamphetamine and other drugs.

  We also propose increasing the staff for our state criminal laboratory to
  aid our
  prosecutors in investigations leading to convictions.  Another tool in our
  effort should
  be the expansion of drug courts.  Drug courts aimed at lower-risk substance
  abusers
  have shown to be successful in lowering the rate of recidivism among its
  graduates.
  We must increase our commitment to community-based corrections as an
  alternative to
  prison for low-risk drug addicts, holding them accountable for their offense
  and
  providing necessary treatment, we need to keep prison beds for more
  dangerous
  criminals.

© 2000 Cornell College and League of Women Voters of Iowa

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