March, 17 2021, 12:00am EDT
How the Popular For the People Act Reduces Influence of Wall Street, Corporate Money In Campaigns By Empowering Small-Dollar Donors...At Zero Cost to Taxpayers!
Our broken campaign finance system skews power in favor of the wealthy and well-connected. The Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United vs. FEC has allowed wealthy donors and dark money groups to spend unlimited amounts helping elect candidates.
WASHINGTON
Our broken campaign finance system skews power in favor of the wealthy and well-connected. The Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United vs. FEC has allowed wealthy donors and dark money groups to spend unlimited amounts helping elect candidates.
Today, Senate Democrats introduced the For the People Act, S. 1, transformative legislation that would fundamentally reshape our campaign finance system, end the dominance of big money in politics by increasing transparency, and reverse the damage of Citizens United by creating a small-dollar contribution, public matching system for federal elections--that doesn't cost taxpayers a dime.
Recent polling from Global Strategy Group and ALG Research shows that voters nearly unanimously support policies to limit the influence of money in politics, and 83 percent of voters support the For the People Act--including 96 percent of Democrats, 74 percent of Republicans, and 73 percent of Independents.
Here's how the For the People Act creates a new campaign finance system that empowers small-dollar donors and limits the influence of big corporations, Wall Street, and the uber wealthy:
- Establishing a voluntary small-donor matching system for all congressional elections at zero cost to taxpayers, through which voters can match up to $200 to those candidates participating in the program. These funds would then be matched at a 6-1 ratio by a new fund so that a $100 contribution becomes $700.
- Creating a "Freedom From Influence Fund" to ensure matching campaign dollars are NOT funded using taxpayer money, but instead by a small surcharge on criminal and civil penalties and settlements from corporations, corporate officers, or tax cheats.
- Setting the requirements to qualify for the system so that congressional candidates must, among other things:
- Raise at least $50,000 in small donations from at least 1,000 individuals
- Adhere to a $1,000 individual limit for all contributions
- Limit use of personal funds to $50,000
- Disclose all campaign contributions
Repair Our Democracy, a project of Democracy 21, is focused on defending the For the People Act against bad-faith attacks and outright lies.
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