Front Porch Politics and “Clean Money”

“Money can’t buy you love,” said the Beatles a generation ago. In a striking demonstration of commitment to the cause of “clean money and clean elections,” a goodly-sized crowd gathered Sunday in the front yard of District 29 state Senate candidate Steve Haley to hear him and two other speakers – Democracy for Memphis activist Brad Watkins and state Representative John DeBerry – insist that money can’t buy you good government, either. In an obvious reference to a highly public campaign or two going on just now, the stem-winding DeBerry commented, “Thousands upon captive thousands of dollars are being pumped into Memphis and Shelby County to tell us that people we’ve never heard from before are better than those that we know.”

In his remarks, Democrat Haley stood on his Sledge Avenue home-base platform and unveiled political planks like strong handgun legislation, an end to regressive taxation, a further strengthening of predatory lending law, and, most importantly, publicly financed elections. “Clean money and clean elections,” said Haley. “That’s why we’re here. That’s the centerpiece of my campaign.” The District 29 seat is, of course, the one that was vacated by a state Senate vote last spring after disclosures of apparent voting fraud.