Adam Smith: “Yes, there is a package coming out with a group of people, freshmen…”

On the recordJuly 11, 1995

Yes, there is a package coming out with a group of people, freshmen and old-timers too, that will literally stop fund-raising in Washington, DC. It also abolishes all gifts and all trips. You know, good people do things because the system is the way it is. In our State of Washington in 1992, we passed a package of legislation in an initiative that literally changed Washington, and we just got the 1994 reports out. When we abolished all these big groups' ability to give a lot of money, it dropped the cost of campaigns down by over a third and it increased individual involvement. We literally had an explosion of grassroots activity. And people would have never thought they could run because they were not running against these big groups. If they could get a grassroots group together, then they could run.

Said by

Adam Smith

Democratic · Washington

Source

govinfo.gov

Editor's note · Context

Discussing campaign finance reform and its impact on grassroots political activity.

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Adam Smith: “Yes, there is a package coming out with a group of people, freshmen and old-timers too, that will literally stop…”

Editor's note · Context