uncomfortably numb: Voters First Pledge

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Voters First Pledge - Common Cause

Voters First Pledge Campaign
Common Cause and other reform groups launched the “Voters First” pledge campaign to build public and political support for comprehensive public financing of congressional campaigns. The midterm election on November 7 gave Congress a mandate to act on these reforms and to prevent future corruption and ethical scandals. The Voters First pledge outlines specific policies to make elections fair for all, restore congressional accountability, and protect voters' right-to-know.
Voters elected 109 candidates who either signed the Pledge or were co-sponsors of a federal bill to publicly fund congressional elections. This includes 21 newly-elected members of Congress who signed the Voters First pledge during their campaigns. All told, the number of supporters in the new Congress has easily more than doubled, and voters have made it clear that they want to see an end to the corruption stemming from the influence of big money campaign donors.
With the new Congress about to be sworn in, we're pushing them to heed this call and pass strong new campaign finance reforms. To see the full list of supporters and whether your Rep. and Senator are on board, visit http://www.votersfirstpledge.org/. You can help by writing a letter to the editor of your local paper, and you can learn more below.
Learn more and take action
We need to continue pushing and publicizing this effort, and you can help. Please take a few minutes to write a letter to the editor to support the Voters First reforms. Click here for tips and a sample letter to make it quick and easy.
Read the coalition press release on the election results.
The Voters First Pledge website has a full list of candidates who have signed onto the Pledge pre-election, a copy of the Pledge to view and download, as well as information on how you can become a part of the campaign.
To learn more about Clean Elections, visit our "What is Public Financing?" page. You can also read about the success of Clean Elections in the states here, and read what political leaders and major news publications have to say about Clean Elections here.
Common Cause and other reform groups commissioned a survey of voters to see where the public stands on Clean Elections. You can see the results here.