One of my favorite sayings is, the plural of anecdote is a data.

I used to say that Jefferson characterized the States as the laboratories of democracy, but nobody reads the lab reports.

This is an important issue. It is one that is not going to go away, and I believe that it is going to continue to bedevil us for some time unless we can find some resolution.

I am delighted that there will be a vote on Senator Udall's constitutional amendment.

I want to sincerely express my appreciation on behalf of myself and Senator Roberts to your commitment and willingness to step forward in these somewhat difficult circumstances.

He believes that members of Congress should have to wear jackets like NASCAR drivers with their sponsors on the jacket.

We all remember the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004. That was a 527. But that required disclosure of donors.

It is worse than I thought.

I want to follow up again on the question of certification because you both identified there is a kind of coming-at-us wave of replacement of machines with new technology, and yet, if the certification system is broken, that could be a…

Voting is our most fundamental democratic right.

I think the very first thing we need to do is to review the roles and the responsibilities of the agency and its employees.

The Senate should hold public hearings on the dysfunctional Federal Election Commission.

And we cannot wait for a solution that may not be available to us in the political or public policy sphere, or in the political sphere, and so other alternatives have to be developed on a fairly urgent basis.

I want to be sure the record shows my appreciation to Speaker Boehner and Leader McConnell for finding you two extraordinarily well qualified, thoughtful people.

I can assure you that this Senator does not view this as a partisan issue.

On behalf of the Rules Committee, I want to thank you for your testimony this morning.

I agree very much with Justice Hugo Black who famously said, with regard to the First Amendment, the words Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech means exactly what it says.

What is it you want to focus on? Where do you think the gaps are?

It may be one of the reasons that our collective approval rating around here is below al Qaeda.

What we have now is it is like the legends of the Trojan War where the Greeks and the Trojans fought each other, but the gods were fighting in the skies.

I want to thank my colleagues for participating and joining us in this hearing, sharing their thoughts and comments on this important topic.

When the Supreme Court, or any of my colleagues, say that the Koch Brothers' First Amendment rights are being deprived, that they are not being heard, it defies common sense, it defies logic.

I am in favor of these ads.

I think one important function this Commission can provide is as a clearinghouse of best practices from across the country.

The ability to be heard is different than the ability to drown out every other point of view using modern technology simply because you have a lot more money than somebody else who has an equally valid view.