Comments on: Public Funding of Congressional Candidates

By: Sonia E. Harden Lemke

Sonia E. Harden Lemke — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 05:28:31 +0000

Has this bill passed the House and Senate? What is the Official Title of the Bill?

thnx

S. Harden

By: David Gaines

David Gaines — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:29:02 +0000

Bob: A quick look at the top of your income tax form will remind you that what you consider to be “a rotten idea” has been the law for many years now.

By: Jim Riley

Jim Riley — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 05:03:10 +0000

So you get $2300 from 16 persons, an average of $9 from 1484 other persons for a total of $50,000. And then the feds give you $900,000?

So you get the $2300 x 16 up front. You use that to spend $34 to get small donors to donate $9.

By: Mik Robertson

Mik Robertson — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:26:40 +0000

Michael Seebeck hit the nail on the head. If a campaign has an organization capable of getting donations from 1,500 people, they don’t need public funds. If you do take public funds, you should be precluded from doing any other fundraising.

Maybe Arlen Specter is sponsoring this bill so he can be assured of funding when he has to run as an independent in 2010.

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:50:00 +0000

This idea stinks. Taxpayer funding of political candidates is a rotten idea.

By: citizen1

citizen1 — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 09:22:22 +0000

Obama took more money from business than any candidate in history.

By: krist Novoselic

krist Novoselic — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 05:23:59 +0000

Obama raised tons of money from small individual donors. This dynamic is due to the information revolution. Campaign financial support was an easy click of a computer mouse. In light of this recent and developing trend – do we really need a federal program that gives tax dollars to campaigns?

By: Demo Rep

Demo Rep — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 04:04:21 +0000

Fed cash = Fed controls

See the bailout machinations.

By: Tom McLaughlin

Tom McLaughlin — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 23:01:48 +0000

In my past dealings with the FEC, they have considered getting on the November ballot as the break point for Independents and minor party candidates. For example in my case of running for the US House in PA, the petitioning was considered the “Primary” by the FEC and after the filing deadline (August 1)was considered to be part of the “General” election. That was the explanation I received from the FEC.

By: citizen1

citizen1 — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:37:03 +0000

The ballot access process needs to be fixed more than than the money.
As Obama proved many will talk about being for public financing but when they realize they can raise much more money the old fashion way. They may not even be scrutinized at all like Obama. Remember they did not look into alleged violations because he did not take public money.
I am personally against any public funding in which the funds are not voluntarily given. I do believe that anyone should be forced to support any candidate.