Transparency in Politics Founder, CEO featured speaker at Tuesday's Carson City Rotary meeting
Transparency in Politics Founder and CEO Jody Baden will be the featured speaker at the next Rotary Club of Carson City meeting. The non-partisan organization offers elected officials and candidates the opportunity to run a background check on themselves and make it public.
The public is invited to attend the meeting which takes place Tuesday, March 5, at noon in the Brewery Arts Center’s Grand Ballroom, 449 West King Street, Carson City.
Baden will about talk why she founded the organization and how it can help voters when it’s time to cast ballots. “When I ran for office in 2000, I was surprised that all I had to do was present an ID and write a check and I could be on the ballot!,” she says. “Most people think that candidates are somehow vetted before being placed on the ballot, that is not by correct! There is no verification of anything beyond the ID.”
That revelation prompted Baden to found Transparency in Politics. The organization has partnered with the Peopletrail Company to offer background checks to candidates which, if they choose to share their report publicly, the Transparency In Politics Certification Seal can be used across social media and in all their communications.
Baden adds that voters deserve that information “There is no appetite for requiring background checks of political candidates that I can see in the near future, on a statewide level anywhere, and certainly not at the federal level. That's why I decided that voluntary background checks for political candidates were the only answer.”
Anyone interested in attending should email carsoncitynvrotary@gmail.com.