We strongly believe that partisan sniping and excessive campaign donations (both hard and soft money) are the main problems with politics today. Here are some people helping to pinpoint the problem or make things better.
Facts About Campaign Contributions
We support a number of bipartisan or nonpartisan reform efforts, including:
-- Budget Reform. Here are some ideas for budget reform by one of our members, Dennis McNannay, who is a small businessman and entepreneur in Oregon.
-- Easier ballot access for other candidates Democrats and Republicans have done a very effective job of preventing anyone who's not in their parties from getting onto the ballot. Good candidates from other parties shouldn't need the wealthy of H. Ross Perot to force their way onto the ballot. Here is an argument for ballot access by Jim Ray, a Libertarian.
-- The McCain/Feingold Campaign Reform Act (sponsored by both Republicans and Democrats). Bob Dole is a huge hypocrite for attacking Clinton on campaign contributions after he did more than anyone to kill this bill. It would ban soft money (a desperately needed move) and make several other reforms.
-- Free Television Time for Candidates. The public owns the airwaves and has let the broadcast networks use them (and earn billions) for nothing. It is well within the public's rights to give some of that airtime to candidates, so they don't need to raise tens of millions to buy ad time. Nearly all of the money in politics goes for TV ads, which almost everyone hates.
Here's a better idea. Every night for two weeks before the election, every candidate on all 50 state ballots gets 5 minutes to talk. They rotate speaking order. The most important thing: it has to be LIVE. No taped, slick little pieces like this last year. Just the candidate, pure and simple.
Copyright 1996 Real People For Real Change PAC