Happy New Year +1!
The first contest of the presidential election season, the Iowa caucuses, is 24 hours away. If you're like me--ruggedly handsome, mildly caffeinated, closely following the presidential race--then you probably want to know whether these candidates will work to restore our democracy by getting big money out of politics, right?
You're in luck. We've compiled their stances, including a few audio clips, so you can see where each one stands on congressional public financing as embodied in the Fair Elections Now Act.
If you're not in Iowa... it's okay, go ahead, you can look, too. It's an important issue and we're fortunate to have a number of contenders who strongly favor public financing.
One related note: Two weeks ago, as I was off on vacation, former Congressman Berk Bedell wrote a stirring op-ed in the Des Moines Register highlighting our effort:
As we prepare to vote in the caucuses, we ought to know where presidential candidates stand on this issue, and push them all to make it a priority. After all, if we can't remove the influence of big money from politics, our lawmakers won't be free to tackle important issues such as health care, taxes or global warming the way they should - in the public's interest.
Twenty four hours until the Iowa caucuses. Congress comes back into session in a few more days. And money pours into the political race at a pace never before seen. I expect we'll look back at this as a key moment in the effort to win public financing for the U.S. Congress and to change how we finance elections across the country.
