Right now in the Senate, Dick Durbin has introduced the Fair Elections Now Act. This is legislation that would implement a system of public financing for candidates that wishes to run for a seat in the United States Senate.
http://www.publicampaign.org/...
Of course, old big money bags himself, Mitch McConnell has immediately come out against it. Here is a link to the video of him speaking about it:
http://www.publicampaign.org/...
So what about McConnell's assertion that 90% of Americans don't want publicly financed elections? This seems to refute that:
http://www.publicampaign.org/...
Which leads one to wonder, why does big money "Boss" McConnell so oppose public financing of Senate campaigns? Well lets look into a little of what this bill proposes:
The legislation would create a voluntary system that provides candidates for the U.S. Senate the option to forego private funding of their election campaigns without having to unilaterally disarm. It would establish guidelines for raising "seed money" to finance campaign start-up expenses in increments of up to $100 per individual. It would also specify the minimum number of "qualifying contributions" of exactly $5 per individual that a Senate candidate desiring to participate in the Fair Elections system would be required to raise in order to demonstrate viability as a candidate and be eligible to receive public funds.
http://www.publicampaign.org/...
Lets see, this bill would allow viable candidates to not have to depend on special interest groups to run for the Senate, but have another option. It wouldn't give just any candidate a free ride to public funds, but would make them prove their viability. This sounds like an excellent plan to give more outstanding citizens in every community a chance to run for public office. I believe strongly that average everyday Americans who are qualified should have a chance to serve in Washington too. That is how our forefathers envisioned it. Mitch McConnell will have none of that!!
Mitch McConnell will work to defeat any kind of Progressive change in this country. How many times have my fellow Progressives seen change in our time defeated, and Mitch McConnell's smirking face behind the microphone? The truth is he is so against this bill because he doesn't want to have to face a qualified candidate who really cares about going to Washington and helping the people of our state of Kentucky and the nation!! He knows under the currrent system he can sit in his ivory tower, and use his millions of dollars of special interest money to bombard just about anyone who runs. His is an America bought and paid for to the highest bidder. As long as power and money drunk politicians like Mitch McConnell run our government, we will never achieve any kind of Progressive change!!
As all of you are probably aware, Mitch McConnell's seat is coming up in the election of 2008. He has already raised a large war-chest to smear an opponent with. That being said, he is vulnerable this time. Kentuckians everywhere are fed up with George W. Bush and it hasn't been lost on us that McConnell has been there all along with a rubber-stamp and a brownnose. Please watch this race, you can be sure I'll be posting here when we have a candidate, and help us when we get one. With a national effort like the one that deposed Lieberman from the Democratic Party, we can unseat McConnell!!! Ridding our country of this ancient relic of all that is backward would in some ways be sweeter than winning the White House!!
Any Democrat- Ky Senate 08!!!