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In Short

Political Reform: Year in Review

Political reform has already made waves in 2010. This week, by gubernatorial candidate Tom Campbell and me on how Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) can solve California’s special election crisis.

 

With the future in mind, we wanted to take a look back at the progress we made for political reform in 2009:


  •  In Los Angeles, IRV remained a hot topic. In January, we released a .  Since that time, LA’s two newest councilmembers, and , both announced their support for IRV, as did .


  • Thanks to this progress, the mainstream media continued to print supportive IRV articles. The LA Daily News , as well as .


  • In just one year, four Long Beach councilmembers (, , , and ) came out in favor of IRV. As a sign of their commitment, they , the first step towards putting IRV on the ballot.


  • After IRV was successfully sent to a study session, . Soon after, they . In addition, the Long Beach Business Journal published .


  • On a statewide level, IRV became part of the political conversation. We released , and the LA Times published a piece by our Political Reform Director Steven Hill that . In the Daily Breeze, Assemblymember Ted Lieu and I . And lastly, California Progress Report recently


  •  Outside of California, voters in St. Paul, Minnesota , while Minneapolis used IRV for the first time.


  • The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science announced it would use ranked choice voting for the Oscars’ Best Picture award, giving national attention to IRV. In USA Today, my colleague Blair Bobier . More recently, the New York Times wrote a piece .


  • IRV was not the only political reform issue making strides in 2009. We made presentations to the cities of Hermosa Beach, West Covina, and Montclair about a form of IRV called choice voting. In response, .


  • We were also thrilled with the passage of AB 30, .


  • During the debate about calling a Constitutional Convention, ¹ú²úÊÓÆµâ€™s Steven Hill .

 

We couldn’t have achieved all of this without your help. While hundreds of people have helped us get this far, we would like to especially thank the following leaders for their steadfast support: LACCD Board of Trustees President Mona Field, Former LA Councilmember Richard Alatorre, Assemblymember Ted Lieu, and the LA Area Chamber of Commerce.

 

As a public policy institute, we rely on generous grants and your donations to carry out our mission. If you could make a thoughtful (and tax-deductible) donation of any amount, we would greatly appreciate it. Checks can be sent to:

 

¹ú²úÊÓÆµ Foundation

3435 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 2724

Los Angeles, CA 90010

 

We look forward to working with you in the year ahead. Happy 2010!

More ¹ú²úÊÓÆµ the Authors

Gautam Dutta

Programs/Projects/Initiatives

Political Reform: Year in Review