Dennis Kucinich, A Strong Advocate For "We The People" Introduces H. J. Resolution 100, Public Election Financing

Dennis KucinichNationofChange / Op-EdPublished: Friday 20 January 2012
“Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has introduced H. J. Res. 100, a constitutional amendment to rescue American democracy from corporate money’s corrupting influence.”
Kucinich Announces ‘Game Changing’ Constitutional Amendment to Publicly Finance Federal Elections Photo: Cactusbones

On the eve of the sec­ond an­niver­sary of the Supreme Court rul­ing known as Cit­i­zens United, which opened the flood­gate of un­lim­ited, shad­owy cor­po­rate spend­ing in pub­lic elec­tions, Con­gress­man Den­nis Kucinich (D-OH) has in­tro­duced H. J. Res. 100, a con­sti­tu­tional amend­ment to res­cue Amer­i­can democ­racy from cor­po­rate money’s cor­rupt­ing in­flu­ence.

“Be­cause of the de­ci­sion by the Supreme Court ma­jor­ity in the Cit­i­zens United case, more money was spent on cam­paigns in the 2010 elec­tion than has ever been spent in a mid-term elec­tion.

“Be­cause of the Cit­i­zens United case, more money will be spent in the 2012 elec­tions than has ever been spent in an elec­tion in the his­tory of our coun­try.


Photo: Cac­tus­bones
“Be­cause of the Cit­i­zens United case, Amer­i­can democ­racy has been put up on the auc­tion block,” said Kucinich.


H.J. Res.100 would re­quire that all fed­eral cam­paigns –all cam­paigns for Pres­i­dent, Vice-Pres­i­dent, Sen­a­tor and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive – be fi­nanced ex­clu­sively with pub­lic funds and pro­hibit any ex­pen­di­tures from any other source, in­clud­ing the can­di­date. H. J. Res. 100 would also pro­hibit any ex­pen­di­tures in sup­port of, or in op­po­si­tion to, any fed­eral can­di­date, so that in­ter­est groups will not be able to in­flu­ence elec­tions. It will main­tain the First Amend­ment “free­dom of the press” and pre­serve the tra­di­tional role that the media have played in our elec­toral process.

“We must res­cue Amer­i­can democ­racy from un­lim­ited cor­po­rate money. This is the most fun­da­men­tal issue fac­ing the fu­ture of our na­tion. With cor­po­rate, pri­vate fi­nanc­ing we have of­fi­cials work­ing for the in­ter­est of cor­po­ra­tions. With pub­lic fi­nanc­ing we have of­fi­cials work­ing for the pub­lic. And pub­lic fi­nanc­ing will ac­tu­ally save tax­pay­ers’ money, by elim­i­nat­ing any in­cen­tive of pub­lic of­fi­cials to re­ward cam­paign con­trib­u­tors with tax­payer sub­si­dies.

We must elim­i­nate the in­flu­ence of money on our elec­tions and on our pol­icy-mak­ing. We must elim­i­nate the in­flu­ence of spe­cial in­ter­ests on our elec­tions and on our leg­is­la­tion. We must elim­i­nate the in­flu­ence of multi-na­tional cor­po­ra­tions and for­eign cor­po­ra­tions on the gov­ern­ment of our coun­try. We can­not wait. We must fight for gov­ern­ment of the peo­ple, by the peo­ple, for the peo­ple,” said Kucinich.

Na­tionofChange fights back with one sim­ple but pow­er­ful weapon: the truth.

ABOUT Dennis Kucinich
Having been elected to Cleveland's City Council at age 23, Dennis J. Kucinich was well-known to Cleveland residents when they chose him as their mayor in 1977 at the age of 31. At the time, Kucinich was the youngest person ever elected to lead a major American city. Since being elected to Congress in 1996, Kucinich has been a tireless advocate for worker rights, civil rights and human rights.