CAMPAIGN FINANCING
Campaign spending, fund raising and tracking is complicated, virtually uncontrollable and must be simplified. There are many concerns over who contributes, how much they contribute, how they influence campaigns, incumbency benefits, tracking and reporting.
Some Congressional Incumbents, as well as some challengers, raise more money outside of their Districts than inside. It is fair to assume that they might be more interested in satisfying the demands of those outside their Districts than of their constituents. Incumbents currently have far more access to money than a challenger who may be far more qualified, which does not lend itself to the best form of representative government. I suggest the following for consideration:
We should tie the spending of The President, Senatorial and House of Representatives Candidates to the amount spent by the Governors of their respective States to win elections. Candidates for the US Senate should be limited to no more spending than it took the Governor of their respective States to win election, and candidates for the US House of Representatives to a division of the number of Representatives in their respective States. Candidates for President should be limited to the total amount spent by the winning Governors, in their latest election, of the 50 States.
We should eliminate all contributions from Corporations, Unions and Political Action Committees (PAC’s). All contributions should come from individual citizens, and they must all reside in the State of the Senatorial Candidate, or the District of the Congressional Representative.
Eliminate the limits currently placed on amounts any individual can contribute, but identify the names of persons making contributions over $10,000.00. If Politicians favoring their largest contributors is a concern, then at least all the favoring will be done for contributors in their District, which would better benefit their constituency as a whole, than the current system.
Since every contributor over $10,000.00 would be made public, citizens would have this knowledge before they cast their votes. This system would also prevent some billionaire from contributing to the campaigns of many candidates throughout the nation, thereby earning unfair influence over Congress, to the detriment of an individual’s constituency.
