Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I take this time to talk about an issue that came up frequently during my townhall meetings in Maryland in August, and that subject dealt with campaign finance reform and what we need to do to restore public confidence in our election system. I must tell you, there wasn't a single person in Maryland who told me that we needed more special interest corporate spending in elections. There wasn't a single person who told me there is too much disclosure of information as to where contributors come from. It was the reverse. People in Maryland believe there is too much special interest money in our campaigns. They believe they have a right to know where all campaign contributions and expenditures come from. They want true campaign finance reform. The interesting thing is that we know how difficult it is to pass campaign finance reform legislation. I was part of the Congress that passed, in 2002, the bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. It wasn't easy to get it done, and it was a bipartisan bill. We made strong headway in that legislation to restrict corporate money. I must tell you, I think the public appreciated the efforts that were made, appreciated that it was bipartisan, and knew we did make progress in limiting what corporations can spend in Federal elections. Corporations can participate. They can have their employees work for political action committees.…”