Dear Friends,
Like most Marylanders, I am alarmed by the huge sums of special interest money that are pouring into our political system. We must reform campaign finance laws to reverse this disturbing trend and make government more responsive to the needs of average Americans.
I am committed to reforming the system to put the public interest ahead of the special interests.
To restore opportunity and fairness and rebuild the American Dream, we must ensure that all citizens have an equal voice in our democracy. But more and more, powerful special interests are flooding the system and drowning out the voices of average Americans. Large corporations, billionaires, and other moneyed interests are increasingly dominating our elections and public policy.
Unfortunately, the devastating U.S. Supreme Court Citizens United decision is moving us in the wrong direction.
With the rise of Super PACs, Citizens United is proving to be extremely destructive to our democratic process. In this election cycle, Super PACs funded by billionaires have already spent an estimated $69.2 million to influence the election. In some state primary contests, Super PACs actually outspent the candidates. These efforts will only become more intense as the general election approaches.
As a co-chair of the House Task Force on Fair Governance, I have supported legislation in Congress to reduce the influence of special interests in our democratic process and plan to author a comprehensive campaign finance reform bill this year.
I support measures to overturn the Citizens United decision, enhance campaign finance disclosure laws, and empower public financing of federal campaigns. As I continue to study the best ideas to reform campaign finance laws, your opinion is important to me. I hope you will take a moment to visit my website at
http://www.sarbanes.house.gov/free_details.asp?id=120 and share your views about how Congress should address the influence of special interest money in politics. Working together, we can restore the public interest, build a more responsive government and a better nation.
Sincerely,
