In California’s June 6 primary, Humboldt County voters passed a ballot initiative that affirmed that corporations do not have the same rights as citizens when it comes to participating in local political campaigns.  Out of town corporations can now be barred from contributing to local campaigns.  The measure, which passed by 55-45, was spearheaded by the local Green Party.

The initiative grew out of campaigns by Walmart which spent $250,000 in 1999 to change the city of Eureka’s zoning laws to allow one of their stores to be built, and by Maxxam Inc., a forest products company which spent $300,000 to engineer a recall campaign against an attorney general who tried to enforce regulations on its operations.

 Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, a leader of the ballot initiative effort said that;

 

Every person has the right to sign petition recalls and to contribute money to political campaigns. Measure T will not affect these individual rights.  But individuals hold these political rights by virtue of their status as humans in a democracy and, simply put, a corporation is not a person.

Sopoci-Belknap called Tuesday’s vote nothing less than the beginning of “the process of reclaiming our county” from the “tyranny” of concentrated economic and political power.

Greens around the country would do well to look closely at the results.  This is an important issue that can be raised in other states as well.