NEW POLL: Big Majority Supports Public Financing, Lawmakers Urged to Sign Pledge

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Wednesday June 21, 2006 · 7:45 AM PDT

2006/06/21 · 07:45

As I travel around the country to discuss my new book Hostile Takeover, I've been talking a lot about the need to create publicly financed election systems, both at the state and federal level. I tell people this is not a Republican or Democratic idea, or a conservative or a liberal idea - it is a small "d" democratic idea, one supported by the vast majority of Americans, and one passed by a number of states (including Connecticut, where I will be tonight for a book event with Ned Lamont). Now, with today's release of a major nationwide poll, we see that's not just rhetoric - it is backed up by cold, hard facts.

According to a brand new bipartisan poll released by the watchdog group Public Campaign Action Fund, 75% of voters support a voluntary system of publicly financed election campaigns - that includes 80% of Democrats, 78% of Independents, and 65% of Republicans. The poll shows this support is being fueled by the explosive corruption scandals that have rocked Capitol Hill. And even more interestingly, the poll shows that candidates who pledge to support a public financing system get a significant political boost over candidates who do not.

These poll numbers - which have been corroborated by earlier polls - are not just being put out into the ether. They connect to direct action we can all take. Public Campaign Action Fund is now launching an effort to get every candidate running for office to sign an official pledge to support public financing of elections, as well as other critical clean government reforms. Get in touch with your Members of Congress and your congressional candidates today, and demand they sign their names to this important pledge. This is a very real way we - the vast majority of Americans - can begin to take our democracy back from the Big Money interests that have performed a hostile takeover of our government.

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