Campaign Reform

There are several issues currently gripping our country that the majority of Americans oppose, yet our elected officials are not listening.  The main reason they don't listen is because their supporters, although in the minority, contribute large sums of money to their campaigns and therefore, the politicians listen to them over their constituents.  To eradicate this discrepancy in our system, I propose the following campaign reform:

All campaign contributions are limited to $100.00 per contributor per candidate per election.  This means that everyone, including the candidate themselves, can only contribute $100.  This would not limit the number of contributions, only the amount.

In other words, in the next election, I would be allowed to contribute $100 to a senator, $100 to a congressman, $100 to a county official, $100 to a mayor and so on.  Every election would start over but all contributions would be limited to $100.

For PACs (Political Action Committees) and corporations, the same $100 limit would apply, which is only fitting given that the United States Supreme Court has ruled that corporations are people too.

The second would deal with anyone who wishes to spend more than $100.  The campaign reform would limit the amount that can be contributed to a campaign but that would not stop someone from putting up their own billboard.  This cannot be stopped as to stop it would be to violate their right to free speech.  It can, however, be regulated.

Any advertisement not paid for by the candidate's campaign fund must have the following disclaimer on it: "This advertisement is neither paid for nor endorsed by any politician or their campaign but is wholly funded by XXX."   "XXX" would obviously be the name of the person or organization who foots the bill.  Additionally, this disclaimer must appear prominently on the ad using a font twice the size of the largest font used in the ad.  For radio and television ads, the disclaimer must be read at a normal reading speed and at the same volume as the rest of the ad at least three times.

This is very simple reform but it would take back our government from the special interests who fund the politicians.  One additional stipulation would probably not be possible to be made into a law but could be an agreement.  Only vote for candidates who agree that they will NOT meet with lobbyists.  They should be dealing with their constituents, not with the special interests.

What do you think?  Comments are always welcome.