Saving Democracy, Documented

Reform Hero Troy Jackson for Maine!

We’ve endorsed Troy Jackson for Maine State Senate. Jackson, a former state representative and dedicated reformer, stood with Bernie throughout the primary race.

A true member of the new American revolution, Jackson served as a superdelegate for Maine at the DNC. He ran in 2014 but lost after a strong race – we want to make sure he’s ready this time. So we need your help! 

If we raise $1000 this week, we can get volunteers on the ground in his district to knock on doors, make phone calls, and do everything we can to get out the vote. Your contributions will have an enormous impact and enable us to turn out the vote — so that we can reclaim our democracy and show America the power of the people!

Big money is now the big issue

The time Bernie Sanders set the standard

We already knew voters of all political persuasions want their democracy back. This has been made clear in poll, after poll, after poll.

But in the Democratic debate last week, an explosion between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton made it clear that this will be the defining issue of the 2016 presidential election.

In a recent poll conducted by EveryVoice and Public Policy Polling, 1 in 4 Americans identified big money corruption as the top issue upon which they are basing their vote. The top issue.

Long gone are the days of having to explain the importance of campaign finance reform. People get it. And people are pissed (eighty-four percent to be exact).

While both candidates claim fighting big money corruption is important, and both Clinton and Sanders have issued solid policy positions, that is where the similarities stop. While Bernie has refused large corporate and PAC contributions, Hillary has used them to fuel her enormous campaign. On one level, who can blame her? This is the corrupt system wrought by Citizen United, McCutcheon, inaction by President Obama, and our criminally negligent FEC.

Last week though, one candidate pushed beyond the peloton. On February 4th, when Sanders was pressed by MSNBC’s Chuck Todd about his first actions as President, he made it very clear what needs to happen first.

“…when you looked at the issues, you missed two of the most important. And that is you’re not going to accomplish what has to be done for working families and the middle class unless there is campaign finance reform.”

And with that, fighting big money corruption in our political system became a central issue of the Sanders campaign. And if history repeats itself, Secretary Clinton will be forced to make it a central issue of her campaign as well.

Join us to use this momentum to fight for reformers at all level of government.

Long live democracy.

@CyrusPatten is the CEO of MAYDAY.US, a national grassroots campaign to fight big money corruption by electing reformers.

Press Release: Teachout Applauds Sen. Sanders’ Support for Public Funding of Campaigns

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Mayday PAC (MAYDAY.US) CEO and Board Chair Zephyr Teachout applauded presidential candidate and Senator Bernie Sanders for calling for the public funding of elections.

“We are thrilled that Sanders is finally turning to public financing of elections,” Teachout said. “We want to see the new Sanders proposal, because publicly financed elections are really the centerpiece of fighting the political inequality and corruption that is sinking our democracy. Here’s how I think about: American democracy is a ship with a hole in the bottom that is getting hit by heavy Super PAC hurricanes. We can’t fix our democracy just by stopping the wind: we need to plug the hole. 

For the last few years, too much of the public discussion has been around a constitutional amendment without talking about the basic problem in our democracy: most campaigns are privately financed, and they don’t have to be. Elections were privately financed before Citizens United, and if we overturn Citizens United they will still be privately financed. 

We have to flip from private to publicly financed elections to address the core problem.”

On Sunday, Sanders indicated his support for fundamental reform in a speech at a town meeting in New Hampshire.