Introducing: Democracy Decoded

08/15/22 • 13 min

Why does American Democracy look the way it does today and how can we make it more responsive to the people it was formed to serve? Democracy Decoded, a podcast by Campaign Legal Center, examines our government and discusses innovative ideas that could lead to a stronger, more transparent, accountable and inclusive democracy.

This episode focuses on on a recent election n Maine, where one of the holes in our campaign finance laws allowed a foreign government to funnel enormous sums of money into a ballot measure election — completely legally. Host Simone Leeper speaks with Richard Bennett, a Republican state senator from Maine; Kyle Bailey, Campaign Manager for Protect Maine Elections and a former state representative; and AaRon McKean, legal counsel for state and local reform at Campaign Legal Center.

Resources

Protect Maine Elections

Resources

Protect Maine Elections

Previous Episode

Ballot initiatives in 2022 and beyond

The first season of When the People Decide has officially ended, but we have a few bonus episodes for you that we’ll be sharing over the next few weeks. This first is a conversation with Kelly Hall, Executive Director of The Fairness Project.

We mentioned The Fairness Project briefly in episode 7. It is one of the organizations working to fight back against the war on the initiative. The Fairness Project also works with ballot initiative organizers across the country — Jenna Spinelle talked with Kelly about some of the issues they’re working on right now and some of the issues that could be heading to state and municipal ballots in the coming years.

As we alluded to in episode 8, there are some hot button issues in the ballot measure arena right now and Kelly is at the forefront of it all. She comes to the role of Executive Director with a fierce passion for progress and over 15 years of experience making change in government, with the labor movement, and through winning ballot measure campaigns.

Kelly was the architect of The Fairness Project’s work expanding Medicaid in six states (soon to be seven!) and her passion for health policy has meant expansion of healthcare to over 830,000 people. Kelly worked on Capitol Hill during the drafting and passage of the Affordable Care Act, and then served in President Obama’s administration helping to implement the law.

Next Episode

Equal rights, not special rights: A follow up

In this bonus episode, we hear from Roger Asterino, a former Cincinnati city employee whose story was at the heart of the anti-LGBTQ ballot initiative in the 1990s. Roger shares the story of coming to terms with his sexuality in rural Ohio, the harassment he and others received from a coworker at the City of Cincinnati, how the Issue 3 ballot measure impacted his life and work, and his decision to leave Cincinnati for California in the years that followed the Issue 3 vote.

We also discuss how Roger met Scott Knox, the Cincinnati attorney who represented him in the lawsuit against the city and was part of the campaign to overturn Issue 3 with another ballot initiative in 2004.

If you missed the episode on Cincinnati's Issue 3 ballot initiative, check it out here.

We're grateful to Roger for sharing his story with us and hope you find it as impactful as we did.