#small donors

[iwriteaboutfeminism]

"During this campaign, I am proud to say that I have received more campaign contributions than any candidate, at this point in an election, in American history. Over 4 million contributions, averaging $18 a piece. If you want to be part of a movement that is not only gonna beat trump, but transform America, that doesn't have a super-PAC, doesn't do fundraisers at wealthy people's homes, please join us at BernieSanders.com"

Bernie Sanders, dem debate, 11.20.19

[scottbcrowley2]

Small donors, not French tycoons, help pay Notre Dame works - Fri, 14 Jun 2019 PST

The billionaire French donors who publicly proclaimed they would give hundreds of millions to rebuild Notre Dame have not yet paid a penny toward the restoration of the French national ... Small donors, not French tycoons, help pay Notre Dame works - Fri, 14 Jun 2019 PST

[kenchristensenpolitics]

Ken Christensen quoted in Bloomberg News Politics Article on progressive small donor fundraising: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-21/democrats-embrace-tax-the-rich-label-after-years-of-ducking-it?srnd=premium

[kenchristensenpolitics]

Ken Christensen quoted in CNN Politics Article on presidential candidates debates & small donor fundraising https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/20/politics/presidential-fundraising-small-donors/index.html

[yahoonews]

The scourge of small-money politics

The most corrupting force in politics, we are repeatedly told, is big money — super PACs, corporate lobbyists, rapacious oligarchs. And there’s plenty of evidence to support the claim.

But let’s be clear: It wasn’t big money that drove Republican House members, before they left town last week, to approve the first-ever Congressional lawsuit against a sitting president, when they should have gotten serious about a pressing border crisis. And it wasn’t big money that had gleeful Democrats doing backflips in the streets at calls from the conservative fringe to impeach Barack Obama.

What’s really fueling the hyperbole and dysfunction in Washington now isn’t one privileged special interest or another, but rather the mouse clicks of ordinary, angry Americans whose $25 contributions add up to a mountain of influence. And in this way, at least, American politics has finally caught up to where the rest of society is going.

We have met the true enemy of rational debate, and, what do you know: It’s us.

There was a time, not long ago, when it seemed to a lot of us that Internet fundraising would be its own kind of campaign-finance reform — a way for thoughtful Americans to wrest the political process from institutional contributors. A Democrat funded by individual, small-dollar contributors wouldn’t be beholden to unions or trial lawyers. A Republican relying on ordinary voters would be able to face up to climate change, for instance, without fearing the backlash from energy companies.

[campaignmoney]

If the cherished notion of a free and self-governing America is to retain any legitimacy at all, we will have to correct the current grotesque imbalance of power between the wealthy and everybody else. Fortunately, House Democrats are putting together legislation that would reduce the excessive power of big donors by vastly expanding the ability of ordinary voters to contribute meaningfully to candidates of their choice. It’s a public financing initiative in which voters contributing $5, $25 or $100 would see their contributions enhanced fivefold or more — turning $50 into a $300 or even $550 contribution for the grass-roots candidates of their choice. Poor and middle-class voters who have been effectively silenced by the big-money crowd would begin to have their voices heard. A similar system in New York City has worked well.

- Demos fellow and former New York Times columnist Bob Herbert in this great op-ed for Politico. Small donor matching systems can help to raise the voices of everyday people in our political process.

[campaignmoney]

Public Campaign's Adam Smith interviewed Hawaii State Rep. Della Au Belatti about her legislation that would raise the voices of everyday people in the political process through creating a small donor public financing system. The bill has already passed the Hawaii House and one Senate committee.

More on the Public Campaign blog.

[opensecretsdc-blog]

Once millions of small donors have a little skin in the game, they’re much more likely to assist with registration and get-out-the-vote efforts. This willingness to help can’t be purchased by super-PACs at any price.

Jonathan Alter, in a Bloomberg View piece titled "How Small Money Can Matter Again in Politics".

Though Alter can't ignore that 75 percent of donations this cycle are from "big donors", he brings up a few points on the oft-unrecognized potential of "small donors": Read the rest of the somewhat-optimistic piece here.