I added my name Change Congress’s petition to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee urging them to adopt permanently a ban on accepting donations from political action committees and lobbyists that they are currently pledging to for all of 1 day (June 18) in deference to President Obama’s fundraising event for them on that date. Obama, whose campaign proved that a successful bid for the highest political office can be made without being beholden to special interest money, has already banned such donations from the Democratic National Committee while he is at its helm.
While I do not believe such a voluntary restriction in funding would prove viable in the long term since it would require that the various Republican party fundraising organizations make the same voluntary pledges in order to maintain a competitive equilibrium, I do think in the short term that if the major Democratic party organizations are forced through public pressure to commit to this stance and face the threat of fundraising reductions, then there is a much greater chance that the Democratically held House & Senate would enact voluntary public finance “clean elections” legislation, giving us the systemic reform that would start to free our political system from the corrosive influence of special interest money.