The Hill: Durbin, Dodd to Push for Public Financing of Elections

[RSchewe]

Two Dems seek money for elections

Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin and Sen. Chris Dodd, the ranking Democrat on the Rules Committee, said yesterday that they will push for public financing of federal elections.

The revelations follow public financing proposals that two senior House Democrats unveiled late last month.

(...)

Durbin, of Illinois, is the second-ranking member of the Senate Democratic leadership, and Dodd, of Connecticut, is the most senior Democrat on the committee with jurisdiction over regulation of campaign finance.

Durbin told The Hill that while he supports the lobbying reform proposal endorsed by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.), he believes that current campaign fundraising practices must also be addressed to tackle the problem of corruption. Specifically, Durbin said he is measuring the level of support for a public financing bill within the Senate Democratic caucus.

“I’m reaching out to the caucus to find out the level of interest,” he said.

“I guess we’ll be working together,” Durbin said when asked about Dodd’s interest in the same type of reform. “I heard Chris was interested.”

Dodd, in an interview, made two points. He argued that an “awful lot of what people are upset about are violations of existing laws” and that a major source of potential corruption exists in the “campaign fundraising area.”

He said that he would push for public financing legislation, but he did not discuss how he envisioned the details of such reform. He added that he hopes to mark up public-financing legislation in “a couple weeks.”

more...

http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/020906/news3.html


Public campaign financing is an issue that will face harsh opposition from Republicans, but it is probably the key to getting at one of the biggest problems in our governement. This is a threat to those warchests that continue to undermine our election process.

The will need a lot of support. Let's just hope they are willing to go all the way with this.

[Rainscents]

1. Bout time!

:thumbsup:

[Mythsaje]

2. YES!!!!

Now THIS would be meaningful reform.

[jwirr]

3. This is the first step toward allowing honest politicians

to free themselves from big money. If this is not done then elections will continue to be won by the highest bidder.

[FreedomAngel82]

4. Good

John Kerry and Paul Wellstone had their own plans. It's in this article. Maybe they can talk to Kerry about that: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20040315/corn/3

[karynnj]

9. More than plans, they submitted legislation at least twice on it

A thread on the greatest page has the details on that legislation. The thread has:

the outline of what the bill has and a link to the entire bill
- the Nation article
- Kerry's excellent Senate speech
-Feingold Senate speech endoursing it

Link to thread - started because someone posted a link to a 2003 Kerry CSPAN Road to the White House where Kerry mentioned that work in answer to a question. Because it was a current issue, Prosense found the bill and started a thread here.

Link:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2445744

[Pirate Smile]

5. Good! This is the big change that is really needed. We need big

ideas - this is one.

[LiberalPartisan]

6. Sounds like they're listening to Howard Dean afterall

He called for this when he was still a candidate.

[blm]

22. Kerry and Wellstone submitted Clean Elections bill in 1996 and 1997.

Most senators ignored it completely.

Some states have now adapted it for their own elections.

[Pirate Smile]

7. Look at what "Mister Numero Uno Reformer" McCain says:

"McCain dismissed the proposal yesterday with a flat "no."'

[RSchewe]

10. He needs to get brushed off. People give him way too much attention...

to begin with. Since when does any reform need his stamp of apporoval? This just makes him a de facto gatekeeper of any ideas the Democrats may bring forth.


Public Campaign Financing needs to be spearheaded by Democrats and coordinated with a grassroots effort to build public support.

[Pirate Smile]

13. We go after public finance, he loses his BS status. That would

be good news. I'm so sick of the way the media portrays him.

It would clearly differentiate the Democrats and the Republicans.

The politician's decisions would be based on their constituent's needs, not the people who pay for their campaigns.

This would be great news.

[Zynx]

8. This is one to nail the Republicans on.

It will be very popular.

[jsamuel]

11. We WILL win this battle if we choose to and this is the way to win.

Public Financing of elections = no more bribes

[Rowdyboy]

12. Hot Damn! Its about time! Reinstate the "Fairness Doctrine" (equal time)

and we might gety our country back!

[Mass]

14. That is the first step if you want clean campaigns not run by

millionaires. Let's wait to see the details, as so many previous proposals have died by lack of Democratic support.

[liveoaktx]

15. Does anyone have a link to what the proposal entails? The details?

[GreenPartyVoter]

16. Anything I can do to help, I will. If the DU election forum regulars and

Activist Corps want to form some sort of plan on helping support this, please drop me a PM? :)

[ProSense]

17. Great, go all the way. Post cross referenced here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2445744&mesg_id=2445744

[madfloridian]

18. Do I see coordination going on? I hope so. See my post.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x366198

I had posted it in another forum here, and it got no attention. It is really important, I think.

[karynnj]

21. This is cool

All three threads are linked - and they are all about the same concerns.

Dean
Durbin/Dodd
Kerry/Wellstone from 1997 and 1999

This is a Democratic issue. That Dean is backing this in VT is great. I think Az and Maine have state law based on the principles of the Kerry/Wellstone proposal. I think they don't apply to federal elections.

[RSchewe]

19. I hope this issue doesn't just fizzle away. n/t

[Nutmegger]

20. That's my Senator!

No, not LIEberman!

:patriot:

[RSchewe]

23. Kos finds some old quotes and points out McCain's flip flopping on PCF

Daily Kos: McCain's about face on public financing of elections

(snip)

Interesting that McCain would be so against this proposal, given that Mr. Straight Talker sounded a heck of a lot different back in December 12, 2002 on Bill Moyer's show:

BILL MOYERS: Senator, in your home state of Arizona, a number of candidates recently were elected to office running with public funding, public financing. Would you support it? Would you endorse, what do you think about that experiment there?
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: I think it's good overall. I think it needs to, like any other new experiment, it needs to have some wrinkles taken out of it. But we had more people run for public office than any time in the history of our state, and that's what it was all about.

As I say, there's some fixes that need to be made, but it was a new experiment, and overall I think was very successful and interestingly the ones who are running, you know what they're telling me? They said, surprise, surprise, I spend my time talking to voters not to contributors.

BILL MOYERS: Do you think that could become a model for the nation as a whole?

SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: Absolutely.

Why the about-face by McCain?

As for you guys, you want election reform? You want money out of politics? Time to start telling your congressmen and senators to get behind this effort.

Again, this shouldn't be a partisan issue. Both parties would benefit greatly if our elected officials and candidates spent their time talking to voters instead of donors. Who wouldn't benefit? Lobbyists and big money interests.

Members of both parties will have to make a choice between the people and the lobbyists and big money interests. I don't expect all Democrats to do the right thing on the issue, and I don't expect all Republicans to do the wrong thing.

more...


http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/2/9/123238/9522