Cleaning Up Washington
I am a patriot and believe in duty, honor, country. But politics today isn’t about what you believe, or what you feel, it has become all about money.
Saving American jobs will require us to first change and reform Washington. The solutions to our economic problems are clear: We need to treat people fairly and protect our workers, because when we stand up for workers and have good paying jobs and a stable tax base, a lot of our other problems like healthcare, education, and Social Security get solved too.
The problem is that there are 63 lobbyists for every Member of Congress. The multinational corporations hire lobbyists and lawyers to represent them in Washington and their armies of arm twisters and campaign contributors wine and dine Members of Congress. Under the Republicans, the lobbyists all but wrote the legislation.
Winning in a gerrymandered, two media market district like this one is expensive. It means that most candidates are dependent on contributions from lobbyists, multinational corporations, and outside special interest groups. Even though I self-financed much of my 2006 campaign, I was outspent by 3.5 million dollars. How much will the next candidate have? What promises will they have to make to get the money they need? Who’s asking the tough questions? Who knows?
I will finance this campaign with 3 million dollars of my personal funds. America has been good to me and my family, and the money is an investment in the future of the country I love. Voters will know who’s behind my campaign: me.
We really need to get the special interests out of politics - which is why I am pledging not to accept PAC money or lawyer and lobbyist money in this campaign, and why I have the independence to tell the truth. I challenge the other candidates in both parties to join me in this pledge. We must avoid the conflict created between big donations and good public policy and reject any gifts or campaign contributions from lobbyists or Political Action Committees.
And then, once I am in Washington, there won’t be a difference between the way I campaign and the way I lead in office. I am running for Congress not because I want the title, but because I want to do the work. I will not take the $160,000 a year salary. I will work for a dollar and expenses.
I will also commit to legislation that creates a sound public financing system for Congress and the Senate. I will fight the waste of taxpayers’ money and I believe Congress should not vote itself a pay raise until we balance the Federal budget and pay down our debt.
One more thing - I want to run on a positive campaign on my record of saving AND creating jobs, global economic experience, and a passion to give back to the country and the community that has given me and my family so much.
So I will not be the first to engage in the politics of personal attacks. I invite all the others running for this office, to join me in a pledge to the taxpayers - not to interrupt their time at home with negative TV ads or clutter their mailboxes with tacky mailers. The issues are too important, we can do better, and I hope the other candidates will agree.