FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 30, 2017
CONTACT:     Olivia Zink (603) 661-8621

MARCH AND RALLY FOR CLEAN ELECTIONS

Kittery, ME - At 2:00 pm on Sunday, July 9, more than 100 committed "Granny D” walkers will gather at the John Paul Jones Historic Site (on US-1 in Kittery, Maine) to call for Clean Elections in New Hampshire.

The walkers will march one mile across Memorial Bridge to a rally in Market Square, Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Speakers include:

• Deane Rykerson: Maine State Representative and Clean Elections participant

• John Rauh, founder of Americans for Campaign Reform and long-time federal and state advocate of Clean Elections

• Rev. Eric Jackson, pastor of Brookside Congregational Church (Manchester, NH)

• Liz Iacobucci, for Take Back Our Republic (www.takeback.org)

“We are marching to bring Clean Elections from Maine to New Hampshire.  Maine has had a system of clean elections since 1996, and it’s time for campaign finance reform in the Granite State,” said Olivia Zink, Executive Director of Open Democracy.  “Last year, political donors spent more than $62 million on New Hampshire elections -- and that’s not even counting the presidential race.  With so much money being thrown at campaigns, how can individual constituents expect to have their voices heard?”

“Our NH Rebellion walks are a legacy of ‘Granny D,’” Zink said.  “We are continuing her work to restore democracy and ‘escort the bullhorns of big money from the room.’ This walk will put a spotlight on the success of Maine’s Clean Elections public financing system.” 

“Campaign finance reform will happen because the public will demand it,” said John Rauh, the founder of Americans for Campaign Reform and a former Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate.

Founded by scholar-activist Lawrence Lessig, the NH Rebellion march project also draws inspiration from the “rebellion clause” of the New Hampshire Constitution, which empowers citizens "to reform the old or establish a new government” when laws serve a privileged few rather than “the common benefit, protection, and security of the whole community.”

Over the last three years, hundreds of reform-minded citizens have braved the elements and walked more than 40,000 miles in a “New Hampshire Rebellion" against big money in politics.  

Reformers continue the work of the late New Hampshire activist Doris “Granny D” Haddock, whose historic cross-country walk for campaign finance reform at the age of 90 helped spark a citizens movement to pass the McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002.

 NH Rebellion is a project of Open Democracy, the Concord-based nonpartisan reform organization founded by Granny D. http://www.nhrebellion.org/about_doris_granny_d_haddock

To learn more about the NH Rebellion, please visit: nhrebellion.org.

To register for the walk, please visit http://www.nhrebellion.org/walk_and_rally_for_clean_elections

For details about the planned events, follow us on Twitter @nhrebellion and on Facebook at: facebook.com/nhrebellion.