Bill Bennett: “I wish to add another point to the points I made earlier when I said that holding down the ability of candidates to…”

“I wish to add another point to the points I made earlier when I said that holding down the ability of candidates to express themselves in terms of the amount of money they can raise and the amount of advertising they can do only creates an opportunity for special interests to fill the vacuum. There is one other point I need to make with respect to the perceptions on this issue. The first perception, which I have attacked, is that holding down the expenditures and the contributions will somehow control the special interests. I am sure the results of where it has been tried has been in the opposite direction. The special interest rule now through campaign contributions --I want to share this with the Senate. A survey was done in Fortune magazine, published in December of 1999, byline, Jeffrey Birnbaum, who, again, is not normally known for his sympathy of the positions of this Senator, he talks about the impact of money on politics in Washington in this article. Fortune magazine does an annual survey of who has the most clout in Washington, which special interests are the most powerful. For 3 years running now--and in this article it is the same one--the No. 1 special interest that has the most power in Washington, rated by those who have done the survey, is--the envelope please--the AARP, which is a group that, by its rules, does not give any campaign contributions to anyone.”