Options For Restoring Fairness To Elections

 
David Donnelly, the national campaigns director of the Public Campaign Action Fund, is working to build momentum for legislation that would counter the impact of a Supreme Court ruling that struck down most limits on what corporations can spend on election campaigns.

In this video, Donnelly discusses the Fair Elections Now Act, which would allow candidates to receive public funding for their campaigns in proportion to the money they raise from small donors. The bill is sponsored by Rep. John B. Larson, D-Conn., in the House and Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., in the Senate. The bill would give candidates for federal office public funding for their campaigns based on the small-dollar donations they receive. Campaign financing "would be driven by how many citizens they engage in their campaign, not how many fundraisers they get to throw here in D.C."

In the wake of what is popularly referred to as the Citizens United ruling, Donnelly says that the Fair Elections Now Act is getting more serious attention from lawmakers. "We know that Congress wants to act very quickly on this, and we think that it is imp[ortant that members of Congress have something that is the boldest and most aggressive kind of solution to run on when they go back to their districts."

But Donnelly concedes that fully addressing the crisis created by the Citizens United ruling will require a constitutional amendment. "Until we change the composition of the court, I don't think there is any other option," he says.

In the meantime, however, Donnelly is encouraging a petition drive to get the Fair elections Now Act through Congress. The petition is at FairElectionsNow.org.

Views expressed on this page are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Campaign for America's Future or Institute for America's Future