1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

Support legislation to redefine corporations in this state and strip them of the power to spend money in our elections. Hawaii just passed a first-of-its-kind law doing exactly this, and Montana activists are gathering signatures for a similar ballot measure. At least 14 other states have introduced comparable bills. This movement is real, it's spreading fast, and this state should be part of it. The Citizens United ruling gutted limits on corporate political spending 15 years ago, and federal efforts to reverse it have gone nowhere. But states don't have to wait. Because states create corporations and define their powers, they can simply exclude election spending from that definition — a principle the Supreme Court has upheld for 200 years. Under Hawaii's model, every dollar in state politics would come from individual human beings, be disclosed, and be voluntary. That's what democracy is supposed to look like. Pass this now.