Democracy for Vancouver

The name of the political game is money, money, money.   What it buys is access and legislation that does not necessarily benefit the people of the district the politician reportedly represents.

Here are two cases in point:

1.     Don Benton, a Republican incumbent in the 17^th Legislative District, has now amassed in excess of $180,000 in his bid for re-election.   Before the general election in November, it will surely be in excess of $300,000.   The salary of a State Senator is $42,106 per year.   Most of the money comes from corporations (tobacco companies, Wal-Mart, insurance companies, major banks, etc), PACs, and well-to-do individuals.  But, there are also plenty of smaller contributors who obviously believe in contributing to the Republican party.  It is these people to which I can feel a real affinity.  Don Benton does not need their money and will not necessarily vote in their best interest.  Assuming that a person living on a limited fixed income is comfortable making a $25 donation, it would take 64 such persons contributing to make up for one well-to-do person, PAC or corporation giving $1,600 (the limit).   Only a fool would be willing to knowingly contribute to this charade.

2.     Brian Baird, a Democratic incumbent in the 3^rd Congressional District, has now amassed $1,083,000 in his bid for re-election.   The salary of a member of Congress is $169,300.    He is facing three opponents in the primary but is not campaigning at the present time.   Apparently he is saving campaign funds for the general election.   The largest amount of money that any of his primary opponents has raised is $24,275.    Corporate and PAC contributions to his campaign are not much different than contributions received by Benton.   Indeed, he gives a lot of it away.  http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/can_com/H6WA03135. Recipients have been the Democratic Congressional Campaign ($42,860 in 2007), the Washington State Democratic Party ($5,160 in 2007) and members of the Democratic party running for election.   Only a fool would knowingly contribute to his campaign since it is clear he does not need funding.

People wishing to help elect true representation in Congress can contribute to Cheryl Crist who is not taking corporate or PAC money and is running against Brian Baird.     Citizens in the 17^th District can contribute to David Carrier (Benton’s opponent).   Carrier is not accepting corporate money or PAC contributions.   Neither of these candidates currently has adequate funding to counter-act the advantages that big money can buy.   Carrier states that he needs $30,000 to mount a campaign - as of 7/28/08 he has received $8,693.  Crist has raised $19,195.

The time is long overdue for public financing to be implemented throughout the U.S. and for the influence of corporations to be outlawed.    How can citizens possibly be represented in the halls of government by those auctioning themselves off to the highest bidder?     It is time for the charade to be over and for citizens to stand up to the puppeteers and start cutting the strings.