Political Quotes

“I regret we are not afforded an opportunity for more bipartisanship in presenting campaign finance reform. But the Republican bill, to me, moves backward and should be rejected by this House. We looked at the objective of campaign finance reform, and what our primary objective should be is to reduce the cost of campaigns. Between 1980 and 1994, we have seen a doubling of the cost of campaigns in House races. The average winning seat went from $178,000 to $530,000. In 1980, 28 candidates spent over $500,000. By 1994 that number grew to 272 candidates. In 1980, two candidates spent over $1 million in their races. By 1994, that grew to over 45 races of over $1 million. So one of our primary objectives should be to reduce the cost of campaigns and the need to raise special interest funds. The Republican bill moves in the opposite direction. It moves toward spending more money in campaigns. There is no voluntary campaign limit at all in the Republican bill. It continues and expands the use of soft money. Now, soft money can come from corporate sources, can come from large, wealthy donors. It goes to our political parties. This bill, the Republican bill, makes it easier for those funds to end up influencing our individual campaigns by relaxing the restrictions on the use of soft money.”