Taking the money out of politics

If you think that in the midst of an economic meltdown spending almost $5 billion on election campaigns makes sense, then you can stop reading now. If you think it’s fine that over 90 percent of the races for Congress were won by the candidate who spent the most money, you can move on to the next perspective now.

But if, like me, you think that lobbyists and big donors shouldn’t be replacing ordinary citizens in making policy, that big money shouldn’t stifle your voice in politics and that huge campaign contributions have created shameful pay-to-pay political scandals and undermined the ideals of American democracy, then you are among friends.

In six states – including Arizona, Connecticut and Maine – this shameful situation has been changed by a new way to finance campaigns. In these states, both Republican and Democratic candidates can mount competitive campaigns without spending most of their time dialing for dollars. And when elected, they don’t owe tax breaks and paybacks to big contributors. Instead, they can run for office even if they are not wealthy or connected to rich special interests, they can spend their time talking with voters and legislating and – most exciting of all – they don’t owe anything to anyone but their constituents.

Thanks to this new campaign financing option (‘fair elections’), Elsie Flemings, a 26-year-old Maine resident, and Matthew Lesser, a 25-year-old in Connecticut, are now holding office in their respective state houses. They have joined state legislatures where over 80 percent of the elected officials (including 10 others who are under 30) have never taken big contributions from lobbyists or from wealthy special interests, such as big energy companies, banks, pharmaceutical companies and others with vested interests in legislation.

As students, neither Flemings nor Lesser had really planned to run for office. But they both – like many other ordinary citizens – found themselves inspired by the public financing option that opened up the political system to citizens who cared and who wanted to make a difference. And now they spend their days giving young people a voice in legislative debates on important issues from funding for education to energy-saving solutions and green legislation.

And beginning this month, we have a chance to get that same kind of option for candidates for Congress as well. A new bill with broad bipartisan support, the Fair Elections Now Act would allow congressional candidates to spend their time focusing on the difficult issues that confront our nation. The bill was introduced on Tuesday and would free politicians from the pressures of fundraising. It would also free them from the questions that members of Congress now have to ask themselves every day: How much time do I spend working to get the country back on track, and how much time do I spend fundraising the countless dollars I need for my next campaign?

The Fair Elections Now Act would give congressional candidates the option to run for office without relying on big money and lobbyist donors. Instead, qualified candidates would be able to fund their campaigns with a blend of small individual contributions and a set amount of public financing. It would allow everyone with great ideas and a passion for service to run for office – even if they aren’t wealthy or connected to big special interests.

So what can you do? You can write to your own members of Congress or call them up to tell them that they should support Fair Elections. We must coordinate our efforts in order to push this bill through. It’s our democracy – now, we have to take it back!