Democracy Day Floor Introduction - ericsundberg/legwiki GitHub Wiki

I am pleased to introduce a group of citizen advocates from around the state who have come to participate in Virgina’s third Democracy Day. Over 70 citizens are regrouped in our respective chambers today representing a dozen non-partisan organizations involved in good governance. These groups include BigMoneyOutVirginia, the League of Women Voters, Common Cause, RepresentUs, UpVoteVA, Clean Virginia, Veterans for All Voters, among others. They are here today to urge us to support legislation that makes our government more responsive to and reflective of everyday Virginians. They believe that to seriously address other issues facing our society, we need to change the way our state government works.

Their priority good governance legislation includes a focus on campaign finance reform (with bills ranging from restricting personal use of campaign funds, enhancing disclosure of independent expenditures, more transparency in reporting, public financing of elections). In addition, they are encouraging legislators to support ethics reform, ranked choice voting, and protection of voting rights.

I think that we are all aware that efforts that governance reform in Virginia are not new, but progress has been elusive. This is in spite of the fact that strong and widespread support of Virginian citizens, irrespective of party, for these reforms. Let this be the year when the state legislature takes the steps needed to improve the reputation of the state government and thereby gain the confidence and trust of our citizens. Thank you all for being citizen advocates for strengthening our democracy. Let’s welcome them to our chamber.