LaborPress

February 7, 2014
By Dan Cantor, National Director Working Families

New York, NY – Democracy means one person, one vote, right? Imagine what Congress would look like if you had as much say as the Koch brothers. In 2010, the Citizens United ruling woke a sleeping giant: unlimited spending on elections. Since then, right-wing billionaires like the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson have pumped untold millions into politics and distorted democracy in their own terrible image.

Maryland Congressman John Sarbanes has introduced a bill to create public financing of Congressional elections, to put the people back in charge, and make sure every voice can be heard. Not just corporate billionaires. And here’s the big news: it’s already got more than 100 co-sponsors in Congress.

In places like New York City and Connecticut that have enacted publicly financed elections, candidates can run for office even without having a rolodex of Wall Street executives and corporate lobbyists. Instead they only have to appeal to voters.

For the 1%, the current system works great. They’ve got the best Congress money can buy, lurching from crisis to crisis, but offering no solutions on inequality, foreclosure, climate change, unemployment or racial justice. Our democracy shouldn't be for sale at any price.  

The 2014 and 2016 elections promise to be the most expensive yet: a multibillion dollar air war to confuse and distract, while the issues that impact ordinary people are left out altogether.

Let’s kick the super PACs to the curb and put the people back in charge.  Join the campaign to pass public financing of elections for Congress and end the undue influence of Big Money in politics.

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