There are many issues we have with the current administration, from Russian stealing of the election to inhumane treatment of people at our border to kicking Muslims out of our country to environmental attacks and on and on and on. But the heart of all of this is the influence of big money on our electoral process and the ownership of the people who should represent us. Until we rein in the big money spent on buying elections and politicians, we can’t combat any of the rest of the issues. It is big money that is corrupting the system, and it is big money that we have to curtail.
Big money has broken our system. It is used to drown out the message of everyday candidates like you and me and promote the names and faces of the candidates it has corrupted. It is used to promote policies that siphon funds from those who are already strapped into the coffers of those who are already flush. The really big donors buy politicians and who serve their interests, not ours. They don’t look out for you and me. When politicians can turn to a few deep pockets to fund their elections, they no longer are obligated to the community, they are obligated to their donors. Citizens United has not only given these deep pockets free reign, it has made it impossible to know who our politicians are working for. So how do we provide sufficient funds to candidates who are not willing to be corrupted by big money to get their message out and get elected so they can legislate us out of this mess? I believe it can be done. I believe it must be done. But few of us have the means to bankroll a candidacy, whether our own or somebody else’s, to take on big money.
Let me start by saying that I really do believe that we can win our races without spending the obscene amounts currently being spent by corporations and wealthy donors. You don’t need to match their dollars one for one. You need enough to, with wise money management, get your name and policies in front of the voters. Let me tell you a story:
Back when I was a kid, my dad was a money guy for a lot of campaigns and initiatives. I remember him being gone for months and months during his campaigns. He was out raising small amounts of money from lots and lots of people. I remember asking him, why did he spend so much time getting small donations from all these people? He replied, “"When a person gives you $5.00 (this was the 60s), they have given you a dinner off of their table. You have their vote. And every one of those dinners comes with a unique set of priorities, interests and desires. So if you get a lot of dinners, you have a cross section of what the constituents want. A good representative listens to that and tries to reconcile as much of it as he can to maximize what he is doing for his people." Years later, I returned to Colorado and quickly joined up with the Republican Party (yes, I used to be a Republican). I was all set to go out and get those dinners. The party chairwoman told me, "Oh, we don't do that any more. That's outdated. We have big donors who fund us. We just go out and campaign. The money is taken care of." I told my Dad that, and he said, "Then I guess the constituency has just switched from the people to those big donors."
I have been looking at my competitor in my race. I notice the funding he has from health insurance companies, from big oil and from the NRA. And I know I can’t outraise him. I know I don’t have those big pockets prepared to write the checks that would get the message out. However, there are a lot of everyday folks in our district and elsewhere who are fed up with the legislation being supported by my opponent on behalf of his big donors. I also believe that I don’t have to spend outrageous amounts of money to get my name in front of my future constituents. I just need enough to buy the literature and materials to make me visible. I can run a lean campaign, I just can’t run on nothing. So I held a barbecue, where I offered this proposal: Donate a Dinner. I proposed that each family who wants change can donate the amount it costs to put a dinner on their table for their family, it will add up to enough to get the message out.
I began to think about how Donate a Dinner could be used to help make me a better state senator. And I remembered, my dad had said that each dinner represents a different set of values, priorities, issues and concerns. If there was a way to know the mix that each dinner represents, I could use that information to guide me on what the majority of my constituents want me to focus on. So I decided I could do a poll where the people donating a dinner could weigh in on various issues. If enough people take the poll when they donate a dinner, I will get a cross section of the community. I can use that as a tool to guide priorities when proposing legislation. I took hard copies of the poll to the barbecue, and I have it in soft copy on my website. Not only will I look at the answers for legislation, I’ll tally up the answers and post the results on an ongoing basis, so the community can see how their neighbors are responding (in aggregate, not individually). That would be a level of transparency we haven’t seen in this district as long as I’ve lived here.
I’ve seen a lot of folks here on Kos who want to get big money out of politics. This was what I’ve come up with. If you want to see my poll, you can find it here, and if you want to help this cause, you are welcome to donate a dinner here. And I’d love to hear your suggestions, because I believe that if we don’t get big money out of politics, we can’t be successful with any of our other issues. So … what are your thoughts and ideas? The floor is yours.