While political corruption and the upset of checks and balances may figure more prominently as the campaign progresses, candidates are so far concentrating on campaign finance reform and domestic surveillance. Additional positions may be found in the Corporations/Regulation section.
Words: Clinton feels we should move toward public election financing rather than banning lobbyists and has called for an end to “soft money” if it includes independent ads. She also advocates ending voter discrimination providing verified paper ballots for every vote. (more…)
Words: McCain has been a leading proponent of campaign finance reform and advocates restricting PACs, lobbyists, and special interest groups and banning corporate and union contributions to end the “influence-peddling scheme”. McCain once supported term limits (more…)
Words: Obama advocates public campaign financing with free TV and radio time. He “soft money” contributions and “bundled” money from lobbyists, but argues that influence comes more from access than the money itself. (more…)
Words: Paul believes that the Constitution was written to restrain the federal government and feels that we are rapidly drifting toward a totalitarian state. He is opposed to presidential signing statements and feels they upset the balance of powers. (more…)
Words: Romney argues that the McCain-Feingold bill prevents free speech in political campaigns. He supports a balanced budget amendment and a line-item veto. He approves of the surveillance of immigrants and has advocated wiretapping mosques in the US. (more…)
Words: Biden is opposed to no-bid contracts and a strong supporter of campaign finance reform, advocating a ban on contributions from corporations and unions and eliminating “soft money”. He also opposes warrantless wiretapping and the suspension of habeas corpus (more…)
Words: Edwards opposes contributions from lobbyists and feels they have far too much influence over policy - especially the oil and pharmaceutical industries - and feels they should disclose their activities. He advocates public financing of elections (more…)
Words: Giuliani is an advocate of campaign finance reform and supported the McCain-Feingold bill. He feels we should use business principles to impose accountability on government with objective, measurable indicators of success. (more…)
Words: Huckabee supports term limits for legislators. He also supports limiting campaign contributions, without public funding, and the disclosure of political gifts, without prohibiting them. He advocates requiring photo IDs for voter registration. (more…)
Words: Kucinich is a strong supporter of the public financing of political campaigns. He also supports more voting rights enhancements and campaign debate reform. Kucinich believes that the Bush administration has failed to uphold the Constitution and international law (more…)
Words: Richardson supports same-day registration and an overhaul of election standards to increase voter participation and eliminate disenfranchisement. He feels we should eliminate PAC contributions and restrict campaign spending. He also supports a line-item veto (more…)
Words: Thompson is a supporter of states rights and feels that strong states work much better than central planning and federalization. He opposes “soft money” contributions, but advocates more hard money donations. He supports term limits (more…)
