Subject: [big campaign] Democratic Political Donors Lobby for Fair Elections Now Act
From: "David Donnelly" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 10:17:40 -0400
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

Here¹s a press statement Public Campaign Action Fund just put out about
adding the voices of donors to the fight to reform our campaign finance laws
< a man-bites-dog kinda thing.

Picked up as a preview by CNN.com here:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/05/05/deep-pocketed-donors-want-ca
mpaign-finance-reform/

For immediate release:            For more information:
Wednesday, May 6, 2009            David Donnelly, 617-899-1084 (cell)
 
Political Donors Lobby For Fair Elections Now Act
 
Nearly 60 Democratic donors who collectively have donated more than $16
million send OEOpen Letter¹ to Democratic members of Congress
 
Letter part of a national campaign to pass Sen. Durbin¹s and Rep. Larson¹s
Fair Elections legislation
 
Washington, DC  In a letter hand-delivered to the offices of House and
Senate Democrats today, 58 political donors urged Congress to advance the
Fair Elections Now Act to address the growing problem of campaign
fundraising.
 
The letter, which was organized by campaign finance watchdog Public Campaign
Action Fund, read in part:
 
³With so much at stake in Washington today, we believe it is shortsighted to
continue down the present unsustainable path of skyrocketing campaign
spending. The Fair Elections Now Act is a common sense idea whose time has
come, a change that will set us on a better path in the years ahead. We hope
you agree with us, and offer your support by co-sponsoring this important
legislation.²
 
³With health care, clean energy, and the economic troubles before them,
members of Congress shouldn¹t be spending their time raising money,² said
Arnold Hiatt, former CEO of Stride Rite and a longstanding champion of
public financing of elections. ³Congress should pass the Fair Elections Now
Act and become less dependent on the interests who will be opposed to the
health care, energy, and economic policies the country needs right now.²
 
The Fair Elections Now Act was introduced in the Senate by Assistant Senate
Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), and in
the House by the House Democratic Caucus Chair John Larson (D-Conn,) and
Rep. Water Jones (R-N.C.). For qualified candidates who raise a significant
amount of small donations, the bill would provide a limited amount of public
financing to run for a House or Senate seat.
 
The 58 signers on the letter collectively have made $16.2 million in federal
contributions, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics,
which guarantees that virtually all of the signers will have appeared on
members of Congress¹ fundraising call lists. A significant number of the
signers have donated more than $100,000 in the last two elections, and many
of them have made sizeable political donations to organizations beyond their
federal campaign giving. In addition to Mr. Hiatt, the signers include
prominent political donors such as Ambassador Elizabeth and Smith Bagley of
Washington, D.C.; Alan and Susan Patricof of New York, New York; Vin Ryan of
Boston, Massachusetts; and Murray Galinson of San Diego, California.
 
The text of the open letter and the full list of who signed can be viewed at
http://www.campaignmoney.org/openletter.
 
This open letter follows an effort to organize political donors begun
earlier this year by Change Congress. Change Congress called a ³donor
strike² which has led to grassroots donors withholding approximately $1.4
million in campaign contributions from members of Congress who have not
cosponsored the Fair Elections Now Act. In addition to political donors,
prominent lobbyists in Washington, D.C. have spoken out in favor of the Fair
Elections Now Act.
 
Public Campaign Action Fund is a national nonprofit dedicated to improving
America¹s campaign finance laws. The group holds politicians accountable for
opposing comprehensive campaign reform and for the favors politicians do for
their political backers.
 
###

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