On Thursday, Tom Malinowski and 11 other House Candidates led a coalition of over 100 House challengers in releasing a letter that calls on Congress to make government and election reform the first item on the agenda for the next Congress in 2019. The letter was coordinated in part by End Citizens United, a grassroots campaign finance reform group.
Key elements of the bill would include: reforming the role of money in politics to ensure more transparency and accountability in our elections, eliminating foreign money from our political system, limit the undue influence of mega donors and special interests, and incentivize small dollar donors; as well as lobbying reform, ethics reform, redistricting reform, and voting rights protections.
“Corporate financing of our elections is a poison to our democracy and enables our elected leaders to put special interests ahead of the people they are in Congress to represent,” said Malinowski. “I’m proud to help lead the charge in Congress to demand reform.”
On Sept. 22, ECU President Tiffany Muller, and Chair of the Democracy Reform Task Force Congressman John Sarbanes joined Malinowski in Flemington for a townhall on corruption and reform issues attended by over 300 Hunterdon County residents. Malinowski’s opponent, Leonard Lance relies on corporations to provide over 40% of his campaign contributions.
Tom Malinowski is the former Asst. Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. He established the Global Anti-Corruption Consortium and has been a leader in the fight to strengthen the ban on foreign money entering American elections.
This week Malinowski released a web ad reaffirming his pledge to forgo corporate PAC money. The letter comes amid a series of high-profile scandals that are shining light on the culture of corruption in Washington and exacerbating voter cynicism at a time when faith in government is already at a historic low.
You can read the full text of the letter here.