[Texgreen] Jim Hightower: Candidates Who Shun Corporate Cash Are Winning

[margaret]

Candidates Who Shun Corporate Cash Are Winning
by  Jim Hightower, Hightower Lowdown. Posted February 26, 2007

Electoral reform isn't just starry-eyed theory: Clean elections are 
taking place in states from Arizona to North Carolina, reversing the 
big-money corruption that rampages throughout our political system.

A number of travel firms offer a "democracy tour" of Washington, DC. 
They'll buzz you through the White House, let you behold the ornate 
grandeur of the Senate and House chambers, give you a peek into the 
marbled halls of the Supreme Court, and generally introduce you to 
symbols of American political power. But to see actual political power 
in today's system, you'd need to take what amounts to an "antidemocracy 
tour," following the money trail through our Capitol City. 
Unfortunately, tourist buses don't go there.

<snip>

The advantages of clean elections are enormous -- not only for the 
candidates, but also for the public good:

A GREATER DIVERSITY of candidates can come forward to give voters real 
choices, for public funding means that a school teacher, cab driver, 
small farmer, factory worker, artist, bookstore owner, veteran, 
waitress, student or other regular person can run ... and be 
competitive.

ELECTIONS ARE RUN on a more-level playing field, giving "outsider" 
candidates a better chance to buck the party bosses, funders, media 
"selectors," and other power brokers.

BECAUSE CLEAN CANDIDATES spend zero time in corporate suites and 
lobbying haunts collecting money, giving IOUs, and continually reaching 
for handouts from special interests to fill the next campaign's war 
chest, they are even free to toss pushy lobbyists right out of the 
door.

RATHER THAN ADVANCING the selfish legislative agendas of big funders, 
CE officeholders can stay focused on the common good, dealing with the 
big challenges that face our society.

THERE'S NO NEED for publicly funded lawmakers to sit in a cubicle three 
hours a day making money calls; instead, they might make random calls 
to constituents back home and ask, "How ya' doin'?"

<snip>

read the whole story
http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/48405/