FreeMontclair.US
Here, courtesy of Chris Casey, is a website devoted to establishing basic freedom of speech for residents of Virginia's HOAs. There is a bill, SB 964, in the Virginia state legislature that would prevent HOAs in VA from squelching political speech at campaign time. Of course, CAI's Virginia Legislative Action Committee is opposing it, saying, "Imagine the homes in your community taking on the appearance of a local state highway at election time!! Not a very pretty sight."

This is just shameful. To me, that statement says all you need to know about CAI's disdainful attitude toward democracy. This is an organization that started out in 1973 with a belief in participatory local democracy. Read their early publications. HOAs were to be all about re-creating the New England town meeting. But eventually CAI became entirely a trade association, and as it was taken over by lawyers and managers, CAI has become increasingly committed to replacing local democracy with top-down, authoritarian property management. That way, the professionals who constitute CAI become the real government of the nation's HOAs. The professionals know that the volunteer directors just don't have time or the expertise to do the job alone, and even if they can, they still can't command respect from the members without the constant threat of litigation by the association's attorney.

I hope this anti-democratic statement is brought to the attention of the state legislators who pay for all those campaign signs that offend CAI's delicate sensibilities at election time.