Media Announcement by Rick Hubbard,
Thursday, September 21st

I have previously promised all Vermonters the opportunity to vote in both the primary and general elections for a candidate who will commit to repair our democracy by reforming our campaign finance system.

Today I have qualified and filed to enter the General Election as an Independent against Jim Jeffords. 

Big money from special interests causes the shameless sale of public policy by Congress and we all know it. This practice costs us hundreds of billions of dollars collectively as citizens. It limits and defines our choices of candidates. It defers, misdirects, and blocks legislation to change our national priorities -- even when these changes are in the common interests of American citizens. Big money from these special interests:

Prevents us from improving our national educational achievement.

Prevents us from providing comprehensive health care for all Americans.

Prevents us from more fully protecting our environment.

Prevents us from working more cooperatively with our world neighbors, and

Prevents us from protecting and strengthening social security.

On July 4th, 1776 our country declared its Independence. We did so because we were denied proper representation. We established our democracy to better serve our interests as citizens. In our democracy only citizens have the right to vote. As citizens, we elect our representatives who, in turn, should enact legislation to serve our common interests as citizens. For 224 years, our democracy has endured. We have gone to war to protect it. Many sons and daughters have given their lives to protect our democracy. Yet it is in trouble today! Representation of ordinary citizens  has been heavily undermined by the corrupting influence of big money and special interests.

Vermonters of all backgrounds, interests and political affiliations understand that the power of big money from special interests treats all of us, Republicans, Democrats, Progressives and Independents with equal arrogance.

We all pay the higher prices for brand name drugs before being allowed to buy cheaper generic substitutes, because Congress, in return for more than $18.6 million in campaign contributions, passed legislation to extend their drug patents longer, costing us as consumers as much as $550 million a year at the pharmacy counter.

We all pay for extra gallons of gas at the pump because Congress, in return for over $5.7 million dollars in political contributions, has failed for the last 5 years to increase the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards to require that the Automobile industry continue to manufacture a mix of automobiles each year that are increasingly fuel efficient. The extra gas costs us an estimated $59 billion a year at the pump.

We all pay more taxes to our federal treasury because 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 licensed broadcast companies. The Federal Communications Commission estimates that not auctioning off the right to make money using the public airways for digital transmission cost our federal treasury about $70 billion dollars. That’s over $700 per American family we have to make up in our taxes.

Taken together, we all pay hundreds of billions of dollars for these and for other benefits conferred by Congress on these special interests. We pay part of this money out of our wallets at places like the pharmacy counter and at the gas pump. We pay more money from our checkbooks, for higher taxes to replace the money that never came into our federal treasury, due to Congressional subsidies and gifts to selected industries.

We must declare our independence from the corrupting bonds of big money in our election campaigns by reforming our campaign finance system. We must alter our very system of government. It is our constant responsibility that our United States remains a government of, by and for the people, not the special interests. We struggle here for the very survival of representative democracy. Our right to alter our government for the common good must be used to restore our government in service of our common interests as citizens. It is our duty to our children and to future generations of American citizens.

To do this we must replace campaign money from special interests with money on behalf of all citizens. We must provide our elected Congressional Representatives with proper incentives to again pass legislation on behalf of all citizens. We must broaden our choice of candidates to include those who are not independently wealthy or beholden to special interests. In sum, we must completely repair our democracy and restore faith and trust in our elected representatives and institutions of government.

To accomplish this, we must enact legislation that addresses all of the following three areas; we must prohibit soft money in federal elections, we must provide public financing to qualified candidates; and we must provide free broadcast time for qualified candidates in federal elections. The cost of public financing is about $10 for each American family per year. By giving proper incentives to pass laws on behalf of all American citizens, we can save American families $500 - $1000 annually.

Since I announced my candidacy for the United States Senate, I have walked throughout Vermont to advocate for meaningful national campaign finance reform and changes in our national priorities. My Walk Vermont effort is designed to draw the attention of all Vermonters to these issues. So far I have walked over 400 miles along 3 sides of our state and visited over 106 of Vermont’s 251 communities. Along the way I have been meeting with Vermonters, giving interviews with radio, television and newspaper reporters and commentators, and gathering petition signatures to raise my voice for these issues in the upcoming elections.

Over 3,300 Vermonters have demonstrated broad support across party lines by signing nominating petitions to qualify me across all party lines to be on the ballot. 

Across our state there is broad diversity in these petition signatures. Of every four Vermonters who have signed, one has signed as a Democrat, one as a Republican and two (twice as many) as Independents. Collectively, these Vermonters know and demonstrate that meaningful reform must set partisanship aside and draw support from all political parties. To be most effective, our next U.S. Senator must establish strong and respectful working relationships across party lines to build support in Congress to repair our democracy.  

For all of these reasons I have chosen to run as an Independent  against Jim Jeffords in the upcoming General Election. Jim has amassed campaign contributions totaling over a million dollars and most of this money comes from special interests and not from Vermonters. Jim declares this big money from special interests to be a terrible problem and proposes solutions, which if fully enacted, will not stop the sale of our public policy or save us a dime of the hundreds of billions of dollars we collectively pay at the pharmacy counter, or at the gas pump, or in higher taxes to replace money given by Congress to special interests. This is because Jim’s solutions simply do not go far enough, and unfortunately he so far has not decided to expand his positions so as to benefit all Vermont citizens. I will offer all Vermonters a meaningful choice in the upcoming elections.

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