Those with big bucks tend to bankroll politicians who'll keep them that way. Those with less cash, like me, get to use their votes and their voices, even though they don't resonate as loudly in Washington, Columbus or Frankfort, or even in City Hall.

        Some cynics I know say they don't vote or get involved in politics because their ballots won't count against the wiles and wills of the rich and powerful. Besides, they say, sometimes no candidate merits the minuscule endorsement that a single vote represents.

        I argue that if your vote is your only voice, why squander it? Too many people — I say this especially to black cynics — have died or suffered to make sure you could vote.

One vote vs. money

        But cynicism is hard to fight when the cynics are partly right.

        Too many elections feature only the best candidates money can buy, instead of an array of hopefuls. What candidate can afford to stand for the little guy when it takes big money to get his or her name out?

        Apathy almost makes sense, until I remember Fannie Lou Hamer.

        Granddaughter of a slave, daughter of a sharecropper, Ms. Hamer tried voting in Mississippi during the early 1960s. She wound up losing her home and farm job and attracting death threats and bullets. She was beaten and nearly blinded for encouraging other blacks to vote.

        Her fight for voters' rights gained national attention during the Democratic Party's presidential convention in 1964. Partly because of her efforts, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which struck down states' use of poll taxes and tests to keep blacks from the polls.

        Her legacy isn't ancient history to me. I was a year old when she was beaten, 3 years old when the Voting Rights Act passed and 15 years old when she died in 1977.

        Last Saturday, a director of the Fannie Lou Hamer Project spoke to a voters group in Cincinnati. The national nonprofit tries to link civil rights groups to national and local efforts to reform election laws.

        The project supports bills like the Wellstone-Kerry “Clean Money, Clean Elections Act” (Senate Bill 117),which would limit campaign donations and allow greater public funding for politicians who eschew private campaign donors.

No strings attached

        A voluntary check-off on income-tax forms, similar to the current one, would send $5 to such candidates. The hope is that there would be enough for them to say “no” to money with strings attached, says Stephanie Wilson of the Fannie Lou Hamer project.

        Despite unfolding corporate scandals and revelations about how campaign funding encourages politicians to shield the crooks, the Clean Act still has no legs in the Senate.

        Locally, Cincinnati's new campaign reforms are under attack, too.

        Beginning with the 2003 election cycle, city council candidates who voluntarily limit campaign spending can get matching funds from the public: $2 for every $1 they raise.

        If they opt out, candidates can raise what they want, but each donation would be limited to $1,000 from individuals, $2,500 from political action committees and $10,000 from political parties.

        But these modest curbs will cost too much, says the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST), which placed on the November ballot Issue 8, which would repeal public funding of campaigns.

        COAST ads ask why tax dollars should fund “the clowns” in city government.

        Now that's cynicism.

        E-mail damos@enquirer.com or phone 768-8395

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