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Common Cause Out Of Business In Florida

Posted Mar 20, 2009 by William March

Updated Mar 20, 2009 at 05:21 PM

After 30 years of advocating campaign finance reform, tougher ethics laws, election reform and other “good government” issues, the Florida chapter of Common Cause is shutting down for lack of funding.

“One voice as a government watchdog is going to be silent,” said Ben Wilcox, longstanding executive director of the organization. He said it’s unfortunate that’s happening at the same time that news coverage of Tallahassee is also declining.

The two Common Cause full-time staff members, Wilcox and development director Alex Chavez of Sarasota, were told yesterday their jobs were being terminated at the end of March, along with a total of 20 staffers nationwide, said Chavez. He said that will include closing at least one other state office, in New Jersey.

The Florida chapter was opened in 1974, four years after the national organization was founded by John Gardner, a former high official of the Lyndon Johnson administration, who described it as a lobbying group for the common interests of the populace.

“Everybody’s organized but the people,” Gardner he once said as his motive for starting the group.

Wilcox said he hopes to stay involved in legislative issues until the end of this session in May.

He said the group’s priorities this year have been preserving the state’s public campaign financing system, which some legislators want to abolish; supporting a proposal for constitutional amendment to abolish gerrymandering in legislative districts; and making early voting in Florida elections more flexible.

Chavez, hired less than a year ago to boost the organization’s membership and fundraising, called the situation “a sign of the times – really a sad story, a sad situation for the progressive movement.”

Wilcox said direct mail fundraising for small donors is drying up, and “major donors are the ones who were burned by Madoff. Non-profits are struggling.”