It's time we get Big Money out of Elections
Comcast and CenturyLink do not want you to have another option. It's why the two telecoms have donated immense sums of money throughout the last decade in the hopes of stopping Seattle and other cities from building out public alternatives.
In 2013, Comcast donated heavily to oppose the mayoral candidate who supported municipal broadband.
In 2017, they did it again: investing over $50,000 in Seattle's local elections in order to halt progress on municipal broadband.
These amounts are drops in the bucket compared to what's to come. City by city, telecoms will spend inordinate amounts of money to defend their monopolies.
When Fort Collins, Colorado recently voted to create a municipal broadband utility, Comcast spent over $900,000. And they lost.
A Tale of Two numbers: 65% & $80,000,000.
To understand why Comcast and CenturyLink keep spending vast sums of money, you need to understand the significance of the above two numbers.
A full 65% of Seattle residents support building out some form of public internet utility.
Comcast is projected to lose up to $80,000,000 each year if Seattle residents succeed.
It is precisely because Comcast has so much to lose, and sees their defeat so certain that they are spending inordinate amounts of money to affect local elections.
We need to let them know, our city government is not for sale.
Seattle's biggest lobbyist
When big telecom isn't spending money to influence elections, they're funding high priced lobbyists to push their influence from within the halls of power.
Comcast has dedicated nearly $100,000 a year lobbying our city council.
Why? Because they know municipal broadband is incredibly popular.
To combat this influence peddling, Seattle needs a grassroots movement to ensure local politicians are listening to voters, not lobbyists.
Further Reading:
In 2016, Comcast was the company that spent the most money lobbying the city council: $98,000. The year before, the media giant spent $99,000 lobbying and won its second 10-year, cable-franchise agreement with support from Murray and the city council (read more).
Like dozens of other cities across the country, Seattle is currently in the midst of a mayoral race. But unlike some others, this election has drawn the attention of Big Telecom, with CenturyLink and Comcast forking over more than $50,000 combined to a political action committee that's campaigning for one candidate: (read more).