PA-4 and Clean Elections

by: IanS

Mon Mar 05, 2007 at 10:16 AM EST

And I'll come right out and say it: while it's exciting that a new wave of members of Congress just swept into office in 2007, I'm worried that the way campaign finance works and the rigors of fundraising will keep them-and their colleagues in Congress and in statehouses-from realizing their full potential as representatives.  So I'm here to voice my concern.  We need "clean elections," or the full public financing of elections, as a way to restore faith in the political process and to make sure that a wide range of folks can run and win.

Jason Altmire in PA-04 was featured in a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story on February 5th describing his fundraising prowess since November 7. 

Just three months after his victory over incumbent Melissa Hart, U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire is keeping a brisk fund-raising pace.

Sounds like he's no slouch-and that's critical if he wants to remain in his seat in a battleground district.

The freshman Democrat from McCandless collected more than $74,000 between the Nov. 7 election and the end of the year, according to campaign finance data released last week.

But note the juxtaposition, because then he said this:

I'd support and work hard to pass any bill that takes money out of politics.

And he did this:

Mr. Altmire signed onto the "Voters First Pledge" of the Public Campaign Action Fund, Common Cause (where I work), Public Citizen and other groups who argue that public financing of elections would allow politicians to spend less time raising money and more time tending to the concerns of constituents.

Altmire is far from the only one.  So many of the Democrats who ran and won seats in November campaigned on the issues of corruption and the need to restore transparency and trust in the government.  Meanwhile, Rahm Emanuel is giving all the freshmen the $1 million homework assignment: Rep. Tim Walz (MN-01) said Mr. Emanuel told him

Start raising money now... And here's your goal. Have $1 million in the bank by the time this race gets ready next time.

So which are they supposed to do, legislate or fundraise?  And similarly, when they're on the campaign trail, do they talk to voters or big donors?  The answer, eight hours out of 10, is the latter.  I don't blame them - in fact, I trust Altmire when he says he wants to take money out of the process - but I'm fed up with this system where the Jason Altmires of the world (and the Patrick Murphys and the Tim Walzs and the Jerry McNerneys) have to raise boatloads of money instead of going in there and actually cleaning up.

Luckily there's momentum to pass this sort of fundamental campaign finance reform for Congress, led by Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. John Tierney, but it'll still take some pushing from the rest of us.  Just putting progressive-minded folks in office isn't the last step - it's making sure our system doesn't prevent them from working towards the changes that they want, that all of us - not just the deep-pocketed donors - need.

This diary has been cross posted on CommonBlog.com