Boston University has 20 official political groups on its campus, so when College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Anthony Scavone transferred to BU, he said he was surprised to find BU did not house the one group that is closest to his heart.
Scavone filled that void last semester by creating the BU chapter of Democracy Matters, a nonpartisan campus-based group that promotes fair elections through campaign finance reform. The first meeting for the group took place last Tuesday.
‘I thought that that was a perfect opportunity to really bring out something that really was unknown and be able to take that and mobilize it and bring it to many people,’ Scavone, who transferred from the State University of New York at Geneseo, said.
Democracy Matters Executive Director Joan Mandle said the organization’s goal is ‘to promote a deeper democracy where anyone with great ideas can run for office without having to be rich and spending a lot of money.’
For a long time, wealthy special interest groups had control over the political process, Mandle said. Even in 2008, the people who spent the most money won the majority of the races, Mandle said.
‘Money is just deadly when it comes to real democracy,’ Mandle said. ‘Unlike most other countries, we have a system that is almost totally dependent on big contributions, and it’s really wrecking our democracy.’
Scavone said he hopes to help pass the Fair Elections Now Act in Massachusetts, which would require anyone who wants to run for federal office to collect a certain amount of $5 donations from the public to prove the public legitimately supports them. Then, candidates can apply for a publicly-funded campaign.
‘Providing an alternative so that [politicians] they can move outside of that [money] and focus on the issues and truly say what they mean . . . is what we want to see happen,’ Scavone said. ‘We’re trying to bring it to Boston, trying to bring it to Massachusetts, trying to bring it to D.C.’
Common Cause Youth Outreach Director Daryn Cambridge said the act was conceived by the organization two years ago, but will be reworked in the near future. Common Cause, a nonpartisan citizen’s lobby, has a working partnership with Democracy Matters.
‘We trying to get those laws passed at the local, state and federal level,’ Cambridge said. ‘We’re trying to educate the heck out of people so that they see the connections and understand how the current system works, why it’s a problem, how they can be part of the solution and then get these bills passed.’
As the campus coordinator and president, Scavone said he has many goals for his chapter, including hosting film screenings and speakers from national organizations to talk about political issues. He also intends to start a letter-writing campaign to local congressmen in support of the Fair Elections Now Act.
‘By the end of this semester, I’m hoping to have our group . . . be a legitimate group and do what all the established groups on campus do,’ Scavone said.
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