Thursday, September 10, 2015
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Lee Woodsmall
Mayday.US
MAYDAY Thanks Reps. Eshoo, Lawrence & Jeffries for Supporting Fundamental Change
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Mayday PAC ( MAYDAY.US) thanked Representatives Anna Eshoo, Brenda Lawrence and Hakeem Jeffries for signing onto H.R.20, Rep. John Sarbanes’ Government by the People Act.
“MAYDAY supports legislation to create public financing of elections,” MAYDAY CEO Zephyr Teachout said. “Voters and candidates alike need the option to choose a clean system instead of the corrupt, private financing system we have. We applaud these Representatives for listening to their constituents and signing onto the Government by the People Act.”
H.R. 20 would create a system in which public matching of small-dollar donations can offset the negative influence of corporate money in our elections. The bill fits squarely within the Supreme Court’s recent rulings and would allow congressional candidates to voluntarily power their campaigns on small-dollar donations of $150 or less – and have those donations matched 6 to 1 and even as much as 9 to 1. With this plan, a high school teacher who donates $150 would have more voice than a lobbyist who contributes $1,000. As part of its 2015 campaign to advance fundamental reform, MAYDAY has been organizing citizens to persuade members of Congress to commit to fundamental reform and has launched an online platform to support that citizen engagement. The ultimate goal of these activities is to elect and re-elect Members of Congress who take leadership in advancing campaign finance reform.
In March, MAYDAY launched a crowd-sourced project to identify potential leaders in Congress to join the fight for fundamental reform. MAYDAY solicited input from its army of supporters to help identify Members who are most likely to support reform and offer explanations for why. In May, MAYDAY announced a list of 47 Members who it believes could be the key to unlocking a majority. Reps. Jeffries, Eshoo and Lawrence were on this list.
All five reform proposals are described at repswith.us. In addition, a list of the 47 Members of Congress MAYDAY identified as the key to unlocking a majority is available here.