Campaign Finance Quotes - Page 2

• Let's face it, the subject of campaign finance is not always scintillating. But it's incredibly important.

  Jane Mayer

  Important, Campaigns, Faces

  Source: www.macleans.ca

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• While Newt Gingrich was running for president four years ago a controversy bubbled up regarding his campaign finances. You see, in December of 2011 a watchdog group filed an FEC complaint alleging the campaign paid Gingrich himself $42,000 for his mailing list. Now, the group claimed that payment was not disclosed on his FEC filing.

  Chris Hayes

  Running, Years, President

  Source: www.msnbc.com

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• Now, in an analysis of campaign finance filings by Politico we learned the [Donald] Trump campaign has paid Trump businesses more than $8 million so far in this race, that includes $1.3 million in rent for campaign offices, half a million for food and facilities for events, over $300,000 for corporate staffers, and nearly $6 million for the use of Trump`s private plane.

  Chris Hayes

  Race, Office, Events

  Source: www.msnbc.com

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• The leftists are constantly whining and moaning about all the money in politics. They want campaign finance reform, right? They want to get all the money out of politics. They want government money governing campaigns. They want all the money out, they say. But then you look at their coffers, and it's overflowing with hundreds of millions of dollars.

  Rush Limbaugh

  Government, Reform, Dollars

  Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

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• Legislative action will never bring genuine campaign-finance reform. Consultants will prove endlessly inventive in gaming whatever system the reformers can devise so as to give their candidate an edge and allow the power of massive money to be felt. But reform laws will become irrelevant and redundant as the Internet replaces the special-interest fat cats as the best way to raise money and takes the place of TV as the most effective way to get votes.

  Dick Morris

  Cat, Law, Giving

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• Some corporations don't want free markets, and they don't want democracy. They want profits. And they use our campaign finance system to loot our commons, to steal from our treasury, and the other shared resources of our community - the air, the water, the public lands, the wildlife, the things that belong to all of us that are held in trust for future generations. Corporations cannot act philanthropically in America.

  Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

  Land, America, Air

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• I think what you've got are millions of people who are in trouble today. They really are. They're confused. They're working longer hours for lower wages. They're seeing productivity going up but their kids are worse off economically than they are. They're looking at a campaign finance system in politics and they see corruption, big money buying elections. Nobody in Congress is listening to them.

  Bernie Sanders

  Confused, Kids, Thinking

  "Sanders: Muslims Are Not Your Enemy And Progressive Values Are The Answer". www.realclearpolitics.com. December 9, 2015.

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• I find that students are very strong on my issues, stronger than anyone: anti-death penalty, anti-racial profiling, campaign finance reform, questioning the anti-terrorism bill.

  Russ Feingold

  Strong, Issues, Reform

  Interview with Matthew Rothschild, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. April 30, 2002.

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• The bottom line is that if politicians weren't in the business of granting favors and exacting tribute, every single issue surrounding campaign finance reform would be irrelevant. After all, why would anyone spend money for influence, access, favors and tribute if the only thing that politicians do is to live up to their oaths to uphold and defend the Constitution?

  Walter E. Williams

  Issues, Reform, Would Be

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• The reason that minorities and women dont have a better shot at getting elected to the Senate or to statewide office is because the campaign finance rules are so skewed as to make it very difficult for non-traditional candidates to raise the money necessary to get elected.

  Carol Moseley Braun

  Office, Campaigns, Minorities

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• For years, liberals have demonstrated a near religious devotion to the cause of 'cleaning up elections' with campaign finance reform, the wondrous panacea that would finally rescue our great country from corruption in politics. ... How anyone could believe that corrupt politicians could or would legislate away their own corruption is completely beyond me.

  Anthony Gregory

  Country, Religious, Believe

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• Scaling back the campaign finance reform bill may get more Republicans aboard, but it leaves many of us who have been involved in the reform movement for years in believing that we are doing something and accomplishing nothing.

  Robert Torricelli

  Believe, Years, Reform

  "Senate to take up softened campaign finance reform" by Jonathan Karl, www.cnn.com. October 12, 1999.

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• I think that the influence of people with power and money to distort democracy and have their interests served before the rest of the population is the biggest problem. That is caused by two things: campaign finance and the way that's structured, and by the Citizen's United supreme court decision. So those two things are keeping democracy from working right.

  Shepard Fairey

  Thinking, Two, People

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• Maybe when they no longer receive Sierra magazine in their mailboxes, journalists will understand how campaign finance reform abridges free speech.

  Matt Welch

  Reform, Campaigns, Magazines

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• For many years, we have had these campaign finance reforms, and they have been failures. Money is more coursing through our system than ever before. Incumbents have used the laws to advantage themselves. And one of the reasons I think they have been failures is we have tried to crush down the money in places like the political parties, and it has squished out into opaque super PACs and sort of hidden channels.

  Mark Shields

  Crush, Party, Thinking

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• From 1976, Judy to 1996, we had six presidential elections. And it was run under the Campaign Finance Reform Act of 1974. In all six of them, every candidate agreed to limits of what he could collect in contributions and what he could spend in seeking a nomination. And they all abided by it.

  Mark Shields

  Running, Presidential, Reform

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• I think the presidency is a bad way to measure the effective campaign finance, because in the presidency, there is so much publicity, there's so much money floating around.

  David Brooks

  Thinking, Floating, Campaigns

  "Shields and Brooks on the power of campaign donors, baseball vs. baby". Interview with Judy Woodruff, www.pbs.org. April 4, 2014.

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• The plea agreement negotiated by Janet Reno's Justice Department with Nora, Gene and Trisha Lum is a hoax. It allows two key players in the campaign finance scandal to plead to lesser offenses and effectively concludes a serious investigation that, if taken to a conclusion, could have seriously affected the Clinton Administration's claim that it committed no illegalities in the campaign finance scandal. Nora Lum was a close confidant of Ron Brown and remains close to John Huang. Trisha Lum, her daughter, worked for Brown at the Commerce Department and worked on trade missions.

  Larry Klayman

  Daughter, Taken, Player

  "Two Democratic Fund-Raisers Charged In Campaign Money Probe" by Terry Freiden, www.cnn.com. May 21, 1997.

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