Sunday marked one of the biggest public protests against big money, drawing thousands to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. But similar, if smaller, efforts have been playing out across the country on a regular basis.
In Chicago, Sharon Sanders, a retired special-education teacher, is working to try to build support for a small-donor matching program for city elections. In Cocoa, Fla., Melissa Martin, a former Marine Corps staff judge advocate, is urging her five-member city council to pass a resolution supporting anti-corruption legislation. In Seattle, high school biology teacher Jonathan Tong helped collect thousands of signatures for a November state ballot initiative supporting a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, which made it easier for corporations and wealthy donors to spend unlimited funds on politics.
