Supreme Court Allows Unlimited Self Funding in Campaigns

Statement

I had to write you all right away with breaking news about campaign finance law. Today, the Supreme Court of Bush appointees ruled that the "Millionaire's Amendment" of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act is unconstitutional.

What does this mean for America's elections? It means there is no protection for the average American against those who can afford to "buy" an election.

The Millionaire's Amendment was enacted by Congress to create a level playing field against a candidate who made the choice to self-fund his or her campaign. In that case, the opponent was permitted to raise more money from supporters to give them a fair opportunity to compete.

Our Congressman Jerry McNerney is not a millionaire. When choosing his career, he passed on a high-dollar job with an oil company to join the fledgling renewable energy industry. His choice contributed to saving the equivalent of about 30 million barrels of oil, or 8.3 million tons of carbon dioxide - the main greenhouse gas - as well as other harmful pollutants.

He told me a story once about how easy it was to make this Click Here To Helpchoice. He went to Texas to interview with a company and as soon as he stepped off the plane he could smell and taste the oil and pollution from the nearby refinery, he thought, 'I can't do this, this is not the world I want my kids to grow up in.'

Jerry made it to Congress through hard work and broad-based grassroots support from over 16,000 individual contributors - with the overwhelming majority donating less than $50.

At the beginning of June, we launched a challenge to you - $50,000 by June 30th. We have been awed by your response. In just a few days, more than $30,000 in small donations has come in to meet that challenge, and we thank you.

Conservative court rulings like this put regular folks like Jerry at risk. In my years working on campaigns, I have seen what can happen to good people who put everything they have at risk to run for office and serve their country when their wealthy opponent chooses to "exercise" their free speech by throwing their millions into the campaign. Before I started working for Jerry, I heard a story about how he put everything on the line - even taking a second mortgage on his house - so he could run against corrupt Richard Pombo.

I hope you'll consider giving a donation to our campaign today. We need $20,000 more to meet our June challenge - money we're using toward our grassroots field campaign to talk to voters one on one about the real issues affecting their lives. We need regular folks, just like you, me, and Jerry, to take America in a new direction.

Thank you,

Robbyn Umland
Finance Director
McNerney For Congress

Source