What about your legislator?
May 11th, 2007 by JamieB
Since the aim of our campaign — and of this blog — is to get Pennsylvania’s lawmakers to change the state’s current atrocious Open Records law, it is important to know where your legislators stand on the issue — and to urge them to support long-overdue reform. We know they listen to you, especially after you turned so many of their erstwhile colleagues out of office in the last election. Included in that number were the president pro-tem and majority leader of the Senate, both Republicans, and the minority leader of the House, a Democrat. That’s quite a trifecta for one day in May and a second in November.
The Pennsylvania Newspaper Association has long had a campaign called Brighter Pennsylvania, whose aim is simple: to make state government more open and transparent. Because it is the newspaper association, its focus has naturally been on the role of the press.
A free and independent press, the association says, is one of the most important pillars of a democratic society. America’s founders believed this role was so critical that they guaranteed it in the First Amendment. Freedom of the press was one of a number of freedoms considered so fundamental that many refused to ratify the Constitution unless they were included. That list — the first 10 amendments to a document that has rarely been amended since — is called the “Bill of Rights,” and it is the foundation of the peoples’ ability to legally and peacefully protect their liberties against government intrusion.
A free press is effectively silenced when meaningful access to government records is curtailed. Why? Because those outside the government then have no way of knowing what is going on inside the government. So, the association has compiled a list of legislators who have publicly pledged to support Brighter Pennsylvania.
Over 125 candidates candidates for election to the state Senate and House signed on to Brighter Pennsylvania last fall. Their number included 22 first-time candidates.
Are your legislators on the list?
Check it out and let us know. The list needs to be updated . . . and there are three ways to do so:
1. Add the names of legislators who have signed on since the last update.
2. More importantly, persuade those who have not signed on to do so.
Only you, their constituents, can get them to do that.
3. And if you ARE a legislator, please join our movement.
It is a movement that is growing because it is an issue that matters.