Do Your Members of Congress back Public Campaign Financing? Link=>>

[clear eye]

FENA, the Fair Elections Now Act, which would establish voluntary public campaign financing for U.S. Congressional races and partially blunt the impact of yesterday's SCOTUS ruling has been languishing in and out of Congressional committees for years. There is a major push to revive it in the House, and activists are trying to get backing for it in the Senate as well.

Here is the link for its list of cosponsors: http://www.fairelectionsnow.org/content/fair-elections-now-act-co-sponsors A majority of House Dems have signed on (Pelosi notably absent), but only four Senators in addition to the prime sponsor, Sen. Dick Durbin.

If you want to see this measure pass to help popular candidates who do not have big business sponsors, call your members of Congress, whether or not they are on the list. They all need to hear that this is an urgent priority.

[cali]

1. thanks. I'm surprised that neither of my senators- bernie or pat

is a co-sponsor. my rep is. bernie and pat will be hearing from me on this.

[clear eye]

3. Did you recommend this thread?

It is at zero now.

All serious efforts to oppose the impact of the SCOTUS ruling are getting hit w/ heavy unrecs.

[cali]

5. I did and here's a kick.

[clear eye]

6. Thanks. n/t

[frazzled]

2. Dick Durbin is my senator, and I love him, and I support this bill ...

but:

(1) It doesn't sound terribly effective. It's voluntary. We could get some good candidates this way, and a few might break through. But still, the self-funded millionaires or corporate- or union-sponsored would have far more resources.

(2) I don't think it impacts on the SCOTUS decision much at all, because that decision applies to outside advertising. Corporations could still put buckets-o'-money into attack ads against our Fair-Elections candidates.

[timeforpeace]

4. Is the word "public" a euphemism for "government" in this situation?

[clear eye]

7. Please read the bill summary. Link=>>

http://www.fairelectionsnow.org/more/summary

I can't explain it as well. This idea has been championed by reformers since the 1970s b/c studies have shown clearly that much more money is saved by reducing corruption and having officials more responsive to taxpayers (think about the MidEast wars) than is spent in financing the campaigns.

I guess every generation has to learn this all over again.