Boulder, CO Becomes Latest Community to Reject Corporate Personhood via Overwhelming Public Vote
By John Aguilar
First published by the Boulder Daily Camera, Nov 1, 2011
Editors note: Boulder is the birthplace of ReclaimDemocracy.org and several long-time supporters helped drive this effort, so we especially want to congratulate all involved. The following is based on the Move to Amend news release immediately following the vote.
A Boulder measure that counters the idea that corporations and unions have the same First Amendment rights as individuals -- a concept referred to as "corporate personhood" -- scored an easy win Tuesday night.
Question 2H, which pushes for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would guarantee that only people are entitled to constitutional rights, won the vote by a nearly 3-to-1 margin. According to the final 12:55 a.m. tally, 18,392 voted in favor and 6,556 voted against.
The non-binding measure also favors limits to campaign donations and expenditures by enshrining in the Constitution the idea that money does not equal speech.
Boulder City Councilman Macon Cowles, who lobbied hard to get the issue to the ballot, celebrated the victory at the Hotel Boulderado with hundreds of other Democrats Tuesday.
"People are tired of corporations picking their pockets and stealing their retirement," he said. "It's a way in which people express the dissatisfaction with the fact that the corporate agenda has become our political agenda."
Cowles said recent Occupy Denver and Occupy Boulder gatherings, modeled on protests against Wall Street and perceived corporate greed that started in New York and have spread around the world, are illustrative of popular discontent with the current system of politics.
Question 2H is a direct response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year in which the court struck down bans on corporate campaign spending after determining that such laws would limit corporations' free speech rights.
The national group Move to Amend took up the cause of passing a constitutional amendment reversing that judicial determination. The Boulder City Council voted in August to put the referendum on the ballot.
Carolyn Bninski, who worked on the Yes on 2H campaign, said the court's decision struck at the heart of what it means to be part of a democracy.
"I think the voters feel the corporations have too much power and they really want the people to be in charge, not the corporations," she said. "It also sends the message that people want money out of politics."
Bninski said she hoped the Boulder ballot measure will catch fire across the country and lead to passage of a nationwide constitutional amendment in the future.
Boulder City Council candidate Tom Johnston, who opposes the measure, characterized the effort to get it passed as misguided. If it one day becomes an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, he said the measure would not only penalize large corporations, but also thousands of individual companies and organizations with small employee bases. [Editor's note: the Camera offered no evidence from Johnston to support his claim.]
Additional reporting from the Move to Amend coalition:
“Today's ‘corporate personhood' referendum in Boulder, Colorado is the latest message from the American people to state and federal legislators on the need for a Constitutional Amendment,” said Congresswoman Donna Edwards (D-MD). “The Supreme Court's misguided Citizens' United ruling burst open the floodgates of corporate spending in our elections, but it also unleashed a wave of public outcry over the need to put individuals, not corporations, in control of our elections. The results from today are just one example that we must take action to protect our treasured democracy.”
Edwards introduced a bill last month for a Constitutional amendment that would overturn the controversial Supreme Court's ruling in the Citizens United case.
“Working on this campaign was electrifying,” said Scott Silber, a local Move to Amend organizer in Boulder. “We had such an outpouring of enthusiasm from our community. Folks were so thrilled to finally have an opportunity to have their voices heard and resoundingly call for an end to corporate corruption of our democracy. From here we're taking the campaign to Denver, and then on to Washington, DC.”
Move to Amend's strategy is to pass community resolutions across the nation through city councils and through direct vote by ballot initiative. “Our plan is build a movement that will drive this issue into Congress from the grassroots. The American people are behind us on this and our federal representatives will see that we mean business. Our very democracy is at stake,” said Sopoci-Belknap.
On November 9, voters in Missoula, Montana will have an opportunity to vote on a similar initiative in their community. Move to Amend volunteers in dozens of communities across the country are working to place similar measures on local ballots next year. See all resolutions passed to date.
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