David Jolly: “I rise this afternoon to talk about an issue that I started bringing up about 5 or 6 weeks ago and that I intend to talk…”

“I rise this afternoon to talk about an issue that I started bringing up about 5 or 6 weeks ago and that I intend to talk about every week until we finally force action in this Chamber. For over 20 years, I have had the opportunity to study this institution, an institution I believe very deeply in--in its ability to rise to some of our greatest national challenges and to solve some of the greatest problems we face. It was not until as a first-time candidate then elected to office that I had the opportunity to experience a few moments that are very unique to actually being in the Member's chair. We have had a great debate over the decades about campaign finance reform, about the role of money in politics. It is a legitimate debate. It is a legitimate conversation with strongly felt views on both sides of the aisle, with solutions as diverse as the ideologies of our country--from greater transparency to greater limits, to fewer limits. Yet, as we have talked about the campaign finance construct in this country and as we have talked about proposed solutions, we have actually ignored one of the greatest blights on this body, itself. It comes not in the form of our campaign finance laws, but it comes in the form of the amount of time that Members of this body are expected or are, in some cases, directed to spend in raising money.…”