More importantly, after I qualified for clean elections, I could spend the majority of my time talking to my constituents.
As the Speaker of the House, I am engaged in recruiting candidates to run for the legislature.
I think that is the beauty of a hearing.
I think that is an important thing to know for our colleagues who represent very low-income communities.
But certainly the most important thing about this thinking is the flexibility...
I am certain that many candidates would not be able to run for office without the public financing option.
Our bill, you are right, does not address 527s.
Again, as you look at this both in terms of the amount of money that you would be able to raise in a primary and then as the amount of money...
Seventy-three percent of Americans believe that campaign contributions from the banking industry have played a major factor in the recent fi...
Would we be struggling this week to figure out how to put together a health-care bill?
It is completely unacceptable to the public on the outside. It allows for too much influence, whether we choose it or not, of outside money.
What I meant by that was the entire approach ends up being corrosive. What is it corroding? It is corroding the democracy.
It is to create an opportunity for a person in a district that maybe doesn't have the contacts...
What it seeks to do, I think, is end the corrosive part of this process and then provide an opportunity to put the public back in charge.
These are bills--and I know that the committee is aware of this--that other thoughtful Members like John Tierney and Dave Obey have introduc...
I think, number one, 73 percent of Americans feel that Members of Congress are unnecessarily influenced by special interests and their campa...
I do not understand that contradiction.
I think it gets more attention to the culture of your campaigns which we have kind of lost here in this arms race.
