Common Hosts Campaign Finance Rally

The fight for campaign finance reform made a brief stop in Cambridge on Saturday.

The March for Democracy paused for an hour-long rally on the Common in support of “Clean Elections” before continuing on its 12-mile trek from Lexington to the Boston State House.

The marchers, organized by the Mass. Voters for a Clean Elections, came out to protest the fact that although Mass. voters passed the Clean Elections law in a statewide ballot referendum three years ago, the state has yet to fund the legislation.

The law stipulates that candidates who accept only small donations (under $100) will be eligible for state campaign funding.

With the recent economic downturn, however, funding for Clean Elections looks unlikely, according to political commentators.

Two-thirds of Mass. voters support this legislation and yet the state has not funded the bill—marchers said this is what brought them out.

“That has to change and we’re here to change it,” said marcher Bob V. Kearney of Lexington.

“We are gathered here today, in the land of Washington, in the land of Jefferson—to move the conscience of Finneran,” said the march’s leader, comedian Jimmy Tingle, referring to Mass. House of Representatives Speaker Thomas Finneran.

A chilly wind buffeted the rally’s attendees, many of whom clutched green balloons and wore Green Party signs. But the issue was truly non-partisan, drawing several local politicians and candidates of all political persuasions from Republican to Green.

At the Cambridge stopover frequent references to Harvard’s Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) occupation of the President’s office last spring and lighter slapstick comedy entertained approximately 100 marchers.

Despite occasional tense moments, Tingle rallied the crowd over common issues, ranging from bottled water to Harvard salaries.

Tingle—referring to last year’s living wage protest at Harvard as “one of the most inspiring things I’ve ever seen— joked that Harvard should have cut the wages of higher-ups.

“If they wanted to hire part-timers—why didn’t they hire a part-time President” Tingle asked. “He could be, like, roommates with the Provost.”

Ariel Z. Weisbard ’02-’03 spoke about the similarities of the people who control Harvard and those who control state politics, calling the Harvard Corporation “seven out-of-state millionaires.”

“In the electoral system the millionaires have to be a bit sneakier,” Weisbard said.

Weisbard said that the living wage campaign advanced to the sit-in because the powers that were didn’t listen to PSLM’s early protests.

“I hope that the state legislature is a bit smarter,” Weisbard said, adding “I know it’s a longshot.”

And Weisbard said that a takeover was in order of state politics.

“The takeover won’t be measured in weeks, like the Harvard sit-in was,” Weisbard said. “It will be measured in two year terms.”

Cambridge’s Democratic State Representative Jarrett T. Barrios ’90—who recently announced that he wouldn’t run a “clean campaign” for 2002 because it would be unfeasible—came out to the rally yesterday in support of the law.

“You’re going to have to yell a lot louder if they’re going to hear you down at the State House,” Barrios told the crowd in brief remarks that avoided controversy.

“Granny D.”—91-year-old Doris Haddock, famed for walking across the country to demonstrate her support for Campaign Finance Reform—came out for the event, although she had some trouble making the step up onto the podium.

“It is really a historic walk” Haddock told the crowd, referring to the march. “It really depends on you in Massachusetts to keep this public funding going.”

—Staff Writer Lauren R. Dorgan may be reached at dorgan@fas.harvard.edu.