Neil Abercrombie: “I began my political career after I left the University of Hawaii, was teaching at Leeward Community College, had little…”

“I began my political career after I left the University of Hawaii, was teaching at Leeward Community College, had little or nothing in the way of fiscal resources. We had the backing of young people, ran a grass roots campaign in 1974 when we had campaign expenditure limits. No matter how wealthy one was, and I was up against candidates who had great wealth available to them, we could not spend any more than the amount that was allocated. We will not have an opportunity today to even debate whether we can get democracy back to the ordinary person. That is why we have such cynicism in the electorate today. And the approach today, and I ask my Republican colleagues to take this into account, I do not want to make this a partisan issue; but if we put this bill forward today with the two-thirds requirement when the membership is not even here, it will add to the cynicism of the American people that prevents young people from being able to run for office or even consider it. Please do not move forward with this bill today.”