Eric Swalwell: “Your proposals to have reforms with more teeth are quite popular across the country. I don't know if you knew this, but…”

“Your proposals to have reforms with more teeth are quite popular across the country. I don't know if you knew this, but it has strong support across a cross-section of the electorate. For example, majorities of Democratic voters, 72 percent women and 84 percent men, support small donor reforms. Independent voters, 60 percent of the women polled and 66 percent of the men polled supported it. Among Republican voters, 57 percent of the women supported it, and 53 percent of the men have supported small donor reforms. So I want to ask Congressman Sarbanes--and then I see we are now joined by Congressman Veasey as well--how has money and politics also worked to disenfranchise voters? Because Congressman Veasey and I heard in the Dallas/Fort Worth area about how voting laws that have been put in place have made it actually quite hard to show up and vote. We heard about the purging of people from the voter rolls. What is the connection there when you have outside interests drowning out voices, putting in who they want as policymakers, and then the effect on the rules that go into place as far as how we govern our election?”