Outside Money is responsible for electing candidates and bypassing voters with massive TV ads. State Legislators have this ball in their court. State Laws could limit campaign contributions to exclude “outside money”, but so far, they don’t want to solve this problem. Voters could have prevented this by researching candidates before they voted, but they didn’t. State Laws could have reduced terms of office for DAs, but they didn’t.
The U.S. currently has 75 George Soros-backed prosecutors
overseeing half of America’s 50 most populous cities, according to a new report
from the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund (LELDF). Soros funded “progressive DAs with $40
million and produced 40% of murders in the US.
https://www.policedefense.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Justice_For_Sale_LELDF_report.pdf
In 2021, the US Senate races
in Georgia showed the outside money used to elect John Ossoff totaled $470
million in outside contributions and Raphael Warnock received $363 million in
outside contributions. These two seats won’t be up for re-election until 2027.
These two elections set a record for being the highest outside contributions
for US Senate races ever.
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2021/01/georgia-senate-races-shatter-records/
We are stuck with these Democrats in the US Senate in Georgia. The Republican Georgia Legislators are not interested in ending outside money, because they count on outside money for their own elections. Currently, all State Legislatures control their own campaign funding rules.
I suggested that the Georgia Legislature adopt banning outside money and all candidates would be on an even footing. Currently, most candidate websites include the candidate’s name, a picture of the candidate with their family and a “donate” button. Voters have no idea of the candidate’s views on issues or their actual work experience.
If States adopted a campaign contributions law requiring that only registered voters would be allowed to make campaign contributions and only for those who would appear on their ballots, campaign contributions would drop, but allow enough funding to pay for yard signs and travel to voter meetings. This would all but end expenses for TV ads. It should result in more voters actually visiting campaign websites to review candidate qualifications.
Corporations, Lobbyists and other Special Interest Groups would continue to have access to elected officials to make their pitches, but would not be allowed to make campaign contributions to candidates.
I would also require that candidates have a campaign website that includes their positions on all issues and their entire work resumes and community activities on their website before they are allowed to file. All candidates would be required to live in their districts and appear on the voter rolls. Judges should include past cases they presided over. District Attorneys should include past cases they prosecuted. All candidates should include their political party affiliation on their websites, even City Council candidates.
This would mean that elected officials would work for the voters. The candidate website requirements outlined above would give voters an even chance to pick well-qualified candidates. Banning TV attack ads would reduce TV ad clutter give news reporters more responsibility to report on candidates. Voters would have to review candidate websites before they vote.
Unless these reforms are incorporated into State Campaign Laws, nothing will change and we will continue to see elections stolen by outside money and the consequences that result.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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