Campaign finance reform will trigger
a major shift in national priorities

Monday, August 28, 2000
Contact: Rick Hubbard (802) 253-8544

[Stowe, VT} – Candidate for U.S. Senate Rick Hubbard today stated that broad and comprehensive campaign finance reform, with public financing, will trigger a major shift in our national priorities.

Hubbard said: “As I have walked the length and breadth of Vermont since last fall, I have found broad support among Vermonters of all backgrounds, interests and political affiliations to remove from Congress the excessive influence of big campaign money from special interests, and to repair our democracy and revise our national priorities.”

He went on to say, “Our democracy is in trouble today. The influence of special interest contributions causes the shameless sale of public policy by Congress, costing us hundreds of billions of dollars collectively as citizens. It limits and defines our choices of candidates, and undermines the principle so effectively stated by President Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address - that government is “of the people, by the people, for the people”.

Most Americans don’t want Congress making decisions on our national priorities based on which interest groups will offer huge amounts of money to help with the next election. Increasingly, we understand alliances between politicians and these groups can defer, misdirect, and block legislation and major revisions of our national priorities, even when they are in the common interests of most Americans. 

Hubbard states, “A pie chart of our federal Discretionary Budget, the money Congress allocates each year after mandatory expenses -- like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, other entitlements and net interest on our national debt, shows the following national priorities:  of every dollar currently spent by Congress, we spend 47 cents on the Pentagon, 6 cents on Education, 5 cents on health, 4 cents on the environment, and 3 cents to assist other countries. I believe these priorities are wrong.”

By shifting amounts within our national budget we can: 1) Restructure our Pentagon budget and work more cooperatively with other countries to strengthen our national security;  2) Improve our educational achievement, especially in math and science, to support technology and our economic security while strengthening our national security;  3) Provide comprehensive health care for all Americans;  4) Protect our environment; and  5)  Safeguard and strengthen Social Security while paying down our national debt.

According to Hubbard, “Broad and comprehensive campaign finance reform is the key to triggering a major shift in our national priorities.  Currently $1 billion dollars is the total average annual cost of all campaigns for federal office. Most of this money comes from special interests, not in small amounts from large numbers of citizens. Incumbents in Congress want this money to gain advantage over their challengers, and this is where the system goes wrong.”

We can and must provide our representatives with incentives to pass legislation on behalf of all citizens. Additional disclosure and eliminating  soft money (the heart of the McCain/Feingold legislation supported by Senator Jim Jeffords),  will not achieve these reform goals. Two sources of big money from special interests will still remain legal:  1) large contributions from Political Action Committees;  2) Individual contributions from industry executives with tremendous incentive to give the $1000 maximum to candidates to get access and attention in Congress. This giving extends deep into executive ranks within each company, and is multiplied by the number of companies within the industry. Resulting total contributions are often “bundled” together and given to candidates as “individual” contributions from each industry.

The test for whether the McCain/Feingold legislation, or any proposed solution, fully solves the problem should be this: Will these measures alone change the incentive Congress now has to please these big special interest contributors at the expense of our common interests as citizens?

To achieve true reform, we must completely remove the influence of special-interest money by replacing it with public financing. This requires an average annual investment from our public treasury of about $10 per American family, about $1 billion. Passing legislation on behalf of all citizens can annually keep as much as $500 to $1,000 annually in the pockets of each family, rather than transferring it to special interests. This is a return on investment of 50 to 100 times.

Consider just one example, among many. Congress took contributions from the broadcasting industry and, four years ago, gave away a new digital part of the public airways for free to existing broadcast companies.

The Federal Communications Commission estimates that auctioning off the right for broadcasting companies to make money using public airways for digital transmission would have brought about $70 billion into our federal treasury. That's an average of $700 per American family in extra taxes, that could have been prevented by an investment of $10 per family. And this is just the tip of the iceberg of savings.

Other benefits for American citizens go well beyond the money saved. Repairing our democracy and restoring faith and trust in our elected representatives and institutions of government provide priceless benefits to us and our children and to future generations of American citizens.

Hubbard says, because of my concern for the future of our democracy, I have chosen to raise these issues as a candidate for the United States Senate.

Over 2,500 Vermont voters have qualified me 3 separate ways, across all party lines, for the upcoming elections, collectively demonstrating that advocacy for meaningful reform must set partisanship aside and draw support from all political parties. For this reason I will be on the ballot in the November 7^th election as an Independent.

It is also important and appropriate that these issues be vigorously discussed and debated during the primary election period since they are so fundamental to our democracy.  For this reason I have chosen to run against Jim Jeffords in the Republican primary on September 12^th to highlight that Jim’s positions on campaign finance reform, if fully adopted, doesn’t go far enough to bring about needed reform. In addition I am conducting a write-in campaign in the Democratic primary.

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