Election and Campaign Finance Reform
I am firmly committed to removing the influence of money from elections.
The rising cost of political campaigns is a serious cause for concern in the United States, as some qualified candidates are discouraged from running for office because they do not have the financial means to do so. Furthermore, the exorbitant cost of campaigns has increased the role of political action committees, interest groups, and political parties through unregulated soft money donations.
In its controversial Citizens United decision, the Supreme Court overturned long-standing precedents to allow virtually unlimited corporate and special interest spending in elections. The eventual result of this and subsequent Supreme Court rulings was the emergence of Super PACs – political action committees permitted to accept unlimited contributions and make unlimited expenditures aimed at electing or defeating federal candidates.
Transparency and the Constitution
I am proud to be an original cosponsor of the DISCLOSE Act, which would require timely disclosure by Super PACs that spend money on campaign advertisements and would require lobbyists to disclose their expenditures to these groups. It would also force corporations to disclose campaign expenditures to their shareholders and would obligate Super PACs to disclose their top five donors in each ad.
Further, in order to remedy the High Court’s overarching opinion that allowed unprecedented amounts of money to flow into the political system, I cosponsored a Constitutional Amendment that would grant Congress and the states the power to regulate campaign contributions in federal and state elections, respectively.
Changing the way business in Washington is done and making our government more transparent and accountable to the public is one of my highest priorities. We must ensure that national policy decisions are based on the power of ideas and not the power of money.
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