Congressman Walter Jones (R-NC) announced to a Common Cause North Carolina gathering that he will co-sponsor the Fair Elections Now Act - a proposal to provide the option of public financing for candidates running for Congress.

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Jones' remarks came at CCNC's annual luncheon and workshop event held on Saturday, November 17th. He expressed great concern about the ever-escalating costs of political campaigns while acknowledging North Carolina's public financing program in place for statewide judicial candidates.

Three very disturbing patterns emerge from an analysis of the 2008 presidential campaign. The first is that none of the leading candidates for their party's nominations will be publicly funded. Second is that both Republican and Democratic candidates depend on large private contributions, not small donors. And third, the financial sector of the United States business community provides a disproportionate share of campaign funding.

There is an easy explanation for the first - Congress has underfunded the presidential system. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Mitt Romney and Rudy Guiliani are raising and spending far more money than would be the case if they participated in the public funding system. The FEC website does indicate that if primary elections had been held in 2007 each candidate would have been limited to about $41 million. That figure will be adjusted upward in 2008, but the order of magnitude will be about the same

Fair Elections Action Week wrapped up last week, but reports are still coming in, including a report I'll share later today on a great development in the U.S. House.  First, I'll highlight an excellent letter here from one of the core activists for public financing in Indiana, entitled, "Opportunity to clean up government at all levels."

Last week, we asked you to vote on which video Common Cause should submit to CNN & YouTube for their Republican presidential debate.  

Now it's time to announce the winner!

Second runner up, with 21.3% of the vote is Josh Zaharoff.
First runner up, with 33.1% of the vote is yours truly, Dawn Iype.

And our winner, with 45.6% of the vote is Bob Edgar.  
Congrats Bob!  

And many thanks to all of you who voted.

Common Cause is planning to submit a question about public financing of campaigns to the CNN/YouTube debate coming up on November 25.  But we need your help to choose the best question!  Please watch the video, then cast your vote for your favorite question.

Thanks!  We'll announce the winner on Monday, November 19.



Vote now!

Cross posted on Talking Justice.

One year from now, we'll be at the climax of the longest and most expensive federal campaign cycles in history, looking in our national rearview mirror at a $1 billion presidential race and another $1 billion spent on races for the House and Senate.

One billion dollars.  The vast majority of it will come from wealthy donors writing large checks, no doubt demanding access to and influence on the winners once they sit behind their desks in Congress, or in the Oval Office. And who will say no to them? Those newly re-elected or newly elected lawmakers will already be worried about finding money to run their next campaign. That is how the fundraising arms race works.

Put all that fundraising activity against the backdrop of our national needs.

We need a solution to the health care crisis, a plan to address global warming, an honest debate on our foreign policy, and much more. The last thing we should have is members of Congress spending more than 30 percent of their time and energy fundraising. I'm not interested in watching another year of endless political money raising, as average voters feel further alienated from their own democratic government.

We need to Get it Straight in 2008. We won't be able to address health care or global warming without removing the influence of big money in politics. So that's what we must do. Public financing of campaigns, or "Fair Elections," allows candidates who show a broad base of public support to receive public funding to run a competitive campaign. Once in office, those same candidates feel accountable to the voters of their district, not their major donors. Imagine electing our legislators based on ideas and appeal to voters, rather than on who can raise the most money. That's not a bad picture.

Maine, Arizona, and Connecticut already use voluntary, full public financing systems for all of their statewide races. But to Get it Straight in 2008 we can't stop there. We need to change the way we finance campaigns across this country, from cities to states to Congress, where the bipartisan Fair Elections Now Act was introduced this year by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA).

Just over a week from now, Nov. 12-16, is Fair Elections Action Week, when people and organizations from around the country that support public financing will take actions to show their support for this ultimate campaign finance reform.

If you agree we need action on health care, global warning, education and other critical issues, please join us in showing you want a change. Join the campaign to make Fair Elections Action Week a step toward a fairer democracy in which all voters--regardless of the size of their wallets--have an equal voice. You can simply sign your name in support, or choose an activity that will be going on somewhere near you to show your support.

Jay Mandle writes a monthly column called "Money on My Mind." The October issue is below. To read past columns, please visit Democracy Matters.

Polling data make clear that there is a gaping disconnect between the American people and their trust in this country's political system. The United States retains the appearance of a democracy, but its substance has been steadily diminished. Private wealth in politics has alienated the electorate and has imposed a conservative agenda on the country.

That conclusion emerges from a review of surveys undertaken over more than a fifty year period by The American National Elections Studies (ANES) a well-respected research organization. The long term trend toward alienation is unmistakable.

Jay Mandle writes a monthly column called "Money on My Mind." The September issue is below. To read past columns, please visit Democracy Matters.

A bridge on an interstate highway collapses and people needlessly lose their lives. The government's effort to develop alternative energy sources is anemic at best and we continue to pollute the skies, worsening global climate change. The dams and levees protecting New Orleans collapse, leaving the city and its population devastated. These failures are not random events. They are directly attributable to inadequate domestic public investment and the politics that lies behind that shortfall.

Debacles such as those that occurred in the Twin Cities and in Louisiana are not inevitable. It is untrue, as conservatives would have it, that government projects inevitably fail. Forty years after the inter-state highway system was constructed during the Eisenhower Administration, that investment is still the foundation of our transportation system. What matters is whether such expenditures are engineered well and are adequately funded.