Campaign Finance Reform
Out-of-control campaign spending has reached a truly dangerous level in our country. Our country’s very future is at risk unless we achieve significant campaign finance reform. Special interests exert far too much power in Washington.
According to political scientist Lee Drutman, corporations spend about $2.6 billion a year on reported lobbying expenditures, measurably more than the approximately $2.2 billion available to Congress for everything from staff salaries to policy, budget, and legal research.
The opportunity for ordinary Americans with talent and dedication to win elections in our country is steadily disappearing. In 1982, the average race for the U.S. House seat cost $265,000, according to the Federal Elections Commission. Now a contested race will cost well over a million dollars, depending on the media market.
The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United represented a major step backward—allowing corporations and rich individuals to contribute unlimited sums of money without any accountability. Congress must enact strong campaign finance reform and end once and for all the current practice of allowing elections to be bought by the highest bidder.
More on Campaign Finance Reform
Toledo, Ohio - Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09), Dean of the Ohio Delegation and the longest-serving woman in the U.S. House of Representatives, released the following statement after news that the Supreme Court today denied an application for a stay of a lower court ruling in a case involving Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, which has been fighting a 2012 lawsuit that demanded that it disclose its donors.
Learn more about the REFUSE Act here: https://kaptur.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/kaptur-introduces-bill-boost-transparency-and-reduce-influence-foreign
Toledo, Ohio – Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09), Dean of the Ohio Delegation, released the following statement regarding the conviction of President Donald Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort in federal court and news of the guilty plea of Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen. This comes after Trump foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos and national security advisor Michael Flynn plead guilty to charges last year.
Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09), Dean of the Ohio Delegation, today introduced the bipartisan Repelling Encroachment by Foreigners into U.S. Elections (REFUSE) Act, H.R. 6249. The bill would help limit the influence of foreign-controlled entities and corporations and bolster disclosure requirements for lobbyists of foreign agents.
Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09), Dean of Ohio’s delegation in Congress, issued the following statement regarding news that the Ohio state legislature passed bipartisan redistricting reform that will now be on the May 8, 2018, ballot for public approval.
Washington, D.C. — Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Dean of the Ohio Delegation, spoke at a press conference at the U.S. Supreme Court to defend the constitutional rights of Ohioans who have been purged from voter rolls and to condemn the clear voter suppression implicit in denying eligible citizens access to the ballot box. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute.
Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09) signed on to an Amicus Brief urging the Supreme Court of the United States to address partisan gerrymandering. Kaptur was joined by a bipartisan group of 36 former and current Representatives and Senators. The Supreme Court will hear the case, Gill v. Whitford, in October, which examines whether Wisconsin's redistricting plan was an impermissible partisan gerrymander. The court’s decision could potentially address the constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering.
Washington D.C. – Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09) today reintroduced the Expressing the Sense of Congress that the Supreme Court Misinterpreted the First Amendment to the Constitution in the Case of Buckley v. Valeo resolution. The Resolution has 11 cosponsors.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 11, 2017
Contact: Josh Stewart, (202) 225-4146 or Joshua.Stewart@mail.house.gov
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 10, 2017
Contact: Josh Stewart, (202) 225-4146 or Joshua.Stewart@mail.house.gov