For Immediate Release

Contacts: Madelon Watts, 216-291-4450, [email protected];  Steven Norris, 440-532-0962, [email protected]; Greg Coleridge, 216-255-2184, [email protected]

Public Hearings on Corporate Power & the Corrupting Influence of Money in Elections

Community-sponsored public hearings will take place in the next few weeks in three Cuyahoga County cities on the multiple harms of political money in elections and corporate power on communities, the state and nation. The hearings, sponsored by the cities of Cleveland, South Euclid and Cleveland Heights, are all required following citizen-driven, initiative petition campaigns passed by voters or enacted by municipal councils since 2012.

The initiative petition efforts were initiated by local organizers connected to the national Move to Amend campaign, which calls on Congress to pass and on states to ratify the We the People Amendment (HJR54) to the U.S. Constitution declaring that only human beings, not corporations, are legal persons with constitutional rights, and that money is not equivalent to speech, and therefore regulating political contributions and spending does not equate to limiting political speech. Ballot initiatives are one strategy the national group uses to educate and organize to build a national democratic movement for the constitutional amendment.  

A provision of each of the citizen-initiatives is an annual or biennial city-sponsored public hearing, labeled in most communities as "Democracy Day" public hearings, on the impact of corporate personhood and money as speech on the community and its citizens. A summary of each hearing is to be prepared by the municipality and sent to federal and state elected officials.

"Democracy Day" public hearings have taken place earlier this year in Mentor, Chagrin Falls and Toledo. Other planned hearings will take place later in 2025 in Shaker Heights and Kent. Hearings have yet to be scheduled for Newburgh Heights, Defiance and Painesville. 

The listing of the upcoming Cuyahoga County Democracy Day public hearings are as follows:

• South Euclid - Thursday, May 8 at 6:30pm at the South Euclid Community Center, 1370 Victory Dr. 

• Cleveland -  Monday, May 12 at 5pm at Council Chambers of Cleveland City Hall, 601 Lakeside Ave. 

• Cleveland Heights - Thursday, June 5 at 6pm at Council Chambers of Cleveland Heights City Hall, 450 Severance Circle

“I am inspired by Bernie Sanders, reminding us despair is not an option,” said Madelon Watts, Move to Amend supporter in South Euclid. "’We the people’ don’t have the privilege of hiding in silence. When we stand and speak up against oppression and justice, only then can real change happen. Move to Amend's Democracy Day in South Euclid is such an opportunity for us, as ordinary citizens, to let our voices be heard."

Cleveland Move to Amend coordinator Steven Norris said, “Corporations have been building their rights under the Constitution through Supreme Court cases for over a century, and big money in politics has exploded over the last 15 years. Private profiteering interferes with the public's rights in areas like education and healthcare. Cleveland's Democracy Day is an opportunity to directly share how our lives are affected and demand a system responsive to We the People.”

"We are witnessing in real time the increasing political and economic power of the super wealthy and corporations in our country to influence not only our elections, but public policies on health care, education, food, jobs, transportation, energy, and the natural world,” said Greg Coleridge, national Co-Director of Move to Amend and resident of Cleveland Heights.  'Democracy Day' public hearings are one way to expand awareness and build the 'people power' grassroots movement necessary to pass the We the People Amendment."

There is broad support across the country for Move to Amend and the We the People Amendment, including over 500,000 individual supporters, passed resolutions and ballot initiatives by 725 municipalities and 8 states, and nearly 800 organizational endorsers. The We the People Amendment has attained 51 Congressional co-sponsors, including Representative Shontel Brown. 

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