"The Buying of the President 2008", a new serial report by The Center for Public Integrity

The Center for Public Integrity has released a report titled "The Buying of the President 2008". They will release a new chapter every month in five parts over the course of a week. The first month's chapter is now coming online.

Every four years, the Center’s The Buying of the President investigates how money shapes presidential campaigns. The 2008 edition explores the roles that money and special interests play in presidential politics — a behind-the-scenes examination of everything from how the major candidates and their parties raise money to the ins and outs of opposition research and the spoils that go with a term in the Oval Office.

The web site, www.buyingofthepresident.org, is just one of many reports published and online at CPI. Check them out, for in-depth research on critical government reform issues.

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Sign the Public Campaign petition against special interest deals

Public Campaign Action Fund has a petition to the U.S. Congress leadership, asking them to take control of the special interest bill requests from Bush donors. President Bush rode into the White House in the elections of 2000 and 2004 on a wave of large corporate campaign contributions, and now they are asking for preferential benefits in return. Our president, however, is for we, the people, not special interests. If you agree and would like to sign the petition, please go here. Here's more info from the petitioner, PCAF:

Stop Bush's Holiday Giveaways
The New York Times reported that lobbyists for big corporations were “racing to secure final approval for a wide range of health, safety, labor and economic rules, in the belief that they can get better deals from the Bush administration than from its successor.” The industries seeking these changes are big donors to Bush’s elections in 2000 and 2004. Congressional leaders ought to do everything in their power to stop these disastrous changes that hurt the environment, public health, workers, and consumer safety.

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Keep political parties out of elective offices

According to a recent Washington Post article, U.S. Justice Department officials attended a dozen political briefings at the White House since 2001. They included preparations for upcoming elections. Partisan use of the Executive Branch should be prohibited, as it should be representative of all of the people, not just one political party.

A drawback to partisan political parties is their present reach into the elected offices of government officials. The exclusive role of a political party is to attract, nominate and support candidates before an election. It is when the Democratic and Republican Parties are special interests of those elected officials, that they lose their representation of all of their constituents.

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Public financing of campaigns frees us from special interests

The Washington Post writes today about the "contamination" of public officials' duties, as opposed to the "corruption" of them. I believe there exists both, and I understand that most of the influence of big money on campaigns contaminates the winners' priorities when they enter office. However, both problems-- contamination and corruption-- must be dealt with through the public financing of campaigns. By being free from the pains of raising funds from the private sector, candidates can spend most of their time addressing all of the people of their district; with a publicly financed campaign, issues of we the people can always be front and center. Public Campaign has taken the lead in campaign finance issues as a proponent of publicly-financed campaigns; they have already seen success across this nation, and with the rising amounts of money today's federal candidates are receiving from individuals and special interests, now is the time more than ever for public financing for all levels of government.

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