Durbin Renews Push For Campaign Fundraising Reforms

[mucifer]

We know this has no chance of passing. But, I'll post the article anyway:

http://progressillinois.com/posts/content/2011/04/12/durbin-renews-push-campaign-fundraising-reforms

With "dark money" expected to play a huge part of the 2012 federal election cycle, Illinois' senior U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin is pushing for a new public finance system for congressional candidates.

The 2012 federal election cycle is officially under way, and all indications are that the amount of untraceable money meant to influence campaigns around the country is going to outpace the torrent spent on the races decided in November of last year.

Unlimited fundraising and undisclosed spending, much of it in the form of independent expenditures for television spots and other political messaging, was made possible by the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling. The controversial 5-4 decision has especially empowered corporations and wealthy individuals, allowing them to channel their resources to non-profits, such as the Koch brothers-backed Americans For Prosperity, that don't have to disclose who is giving them their dollars.

[W_HAMILTON]

1. It's not "sexy," but this is what we should be most focused on.

Get money out of politics. Go to a publicly financed system for ALL federally elected officials. "Free" speech is not supposed to cost hundreds of millions of dollars each election cycle.

[mucifer]

2. no republicans and probably not too many dems would go for this.

They want their free money. I think it's nearly impossible to pass.

[W_HAMILTON]

3. I know...

And that's the problem. Our system will continue to be fundamentally flawed until we fix this. How can we go about that?