Governance

Campaign Finance Reform

Presently, rich individuals and corporations have a huge unfair advantage -- It's almost to the point where they completely control the country.

I believe there should be more public funding of campaigns than there is, now.  Such as:

  • 10 to 1 matching of small (under $100) donations.
  • Federal sponsorship of primary and general election debates.

Fossil Fuel Pledge

I have taken the pledge to not accept fossil fuel money:

PAC Money

I will not accept contributions from lobbyists (it's illegal).  I will only accept PAC money from PACs I already agree with.

Earmarks

Without exception, I believe that the identity of the legislators responsible for earmarks should be public knowledge.  There isn't necessarily anything wrong with earmarks -- After all, we do expect our Senators and Representatives to bring federal money back to their districts:  It keeps the Federal Government from being totally insensitive to regional concerns.

Transparency

I support most of the transparency reforms advocated by the Sunlight Foundation.  I support requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns.  I also will be looking for ways to ensure Congress and the general public have better ways to ensure Presidents obey the emoluments clause in the Constitution.

Corporations

There is something fundamentally wrong with the way our government regulates corporations.  Actually, the problem shows up in my own statement in that I use the term "regulates".  Right now, there is an adversarial relationship between the government and corporations.  The government passes regulations and the corporations try to get around them.  Actually, this is only true for a small minority of corporations, but it only takes a few rotten apples to spoil the barrel.  Most corporations employ people like you and me who don't intentionally go around doing damage in the name of a buck.  But there are a few organizations out there that will be happy to bury poisonous industrial waste in your backyard if they can do it without being caught.   More...