http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/11/should-taxpayers-fund-candidates-bid-for-office Comments On: Should Taxpayers Fund Candidates' Bid for Office? by Cienna Madrid en-us Copyright 2013 The Stranger. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, The Stranger readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger. webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster) Sat, 18 May 2013 00:00:01 -0700 Sat, 18 May 2013 19:30:00 -0700 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss
I ran for office a few years ago, and the whole process disillusioned me quite thoroughly. You're expected to spend 90% of your time dialing for dollars - calling people and asking them for money, or going to endorsement interviews with various special-interest groups so they'll give you money. If you don't raise "serious" money, you're not regarded as a "serious" candidate (that's one of the unexpectedly adverse results of the Public Disclosure Committee - everyone can see what every candidate has raised, from where, and where it's been spent, which is great, but it also turns the whole goddam thing into a "who has more cash" horserace).

Public campaign financing and the return of the Fairness Doctrine would do more to reform politics in this country than all the vitriolic Internet rhetoric and speechifying and sign-waving and poll-fixing combined.

Posted by Geni]]> Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:06:09 -0800 The Stranger Posted by orino]]> Mon, 11 Feb 2013 14:51:52 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Zander]]> Mon, 11 Feb 2013 14:35:25 -0800 The Stranger
Wouldn't it be nice for that to be ordinary taxpayers?
Posted by Kazrak]]> Mon, 11 Feb 2013 13:43:15 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Pope Peabrain]]> Mon, 11 Feb 2013 12:30:14 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Zander]]> Mon, 11 Feb 2013 12:23:03 -0800 The Stranger Posted by LMcGuff]]> Mon, 11 Feb 2013 12:16:54 -0800 The Stranger
But I'm not a fundamentalist on this point, and I'm sure the devil's in the details. The debate should be interesting.
Posted by Matt the Engineer]]> Mon, 11 Feb 2013 12:04:20 -0800 The Stranger