Issue Position: Campaign Finance Reform

Issue Position

Congressional approval ratings are at an all-time low. As a nation, we have lost trust in our elected officials. This cynicism is understandable -- corporations and special interests have taken control of the agenda in Washington by bankrolling politicians through Political Action Committees ("PACs") and lobbyists. We, as citizens, must do better in ensuring that our government is accountable to the people and not the special interest groups. It is time our lawmakers worked together to return control of Washington's agenda to the people.

Lawmakers should not spend half of their time fundraising from the wealthy and those with business before or to be regulated by the government. Meaningful reform is blocked when lobbyists promise donations or threaten to take them away. In essence, our system of campaign finance is corrupt and it is difficult to impossible to make any meaningful reform until we reform how our elections are financed.

Jeff Kurzon is committed to restoring the "citizen' as the highest-ranking member of our democracy. Jeff believes in 'one person, one vote' since when he met Granny D in 2007 until when he marched with Lawrence Lessig in New Hampshire in 2014.

As a matter of principle, Jeff does not accept PAC money or money from lobbyists. Instead. in 2014, Jeff challenged the incumbent to do the same. She has done the opposite. If you search her FEC.gov campaign reports, you will see her contributors as a who's who of special interests. In 2014, Jeff relied solely on individual donors to help spread his positive message of reform. In 2016, he has pledged to spend no more than $5,000 of his own money on winning the Democratic primary. He believes that, as Democrats, we need to be a party of the people not a party of the corporations and special interest groups.

When elected, Jeff promises to:

- Support legislation that creates a system of public financing with limits on spending and donations for federal elections, similar to what we have in New York City for local elections. This will enable all people to have a say in who gets elected -- not just the largest corporations who can afford to give PAC money and hire lobbyists

- Support Senator Sanders' Constitutional Amendment to overturn Citizens United to prevent outside expenditures

- Propose legislation that will disallow contributions from all PACs --especially corporate PACs -- to make lawmakers responsive to their constituents instead of their big donors

- Propose legislation to make greater transparency so that citizens know where their elected leaders are obtaining their funds and to ban certain types of contributions (such as from federal contractors)

- Propose legislation that ends the 'revolving door' between the federal government and industries that it is supposed to regulate

- Support additional policies that are aimed at ending government corruption and that increase transparency

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