Schwarzenegger Campaigns for Election Reform in the LA Times today: He writes primarily about term limits but also Campaign Finance reform and Redistricting. We need redistricting reform to make the political system more competitive and more representative of the citizens of California. We need campaign finance reform to limit the influence of money in politics, and it is time to reform legislative term limits. …Though some progress was made last year on that issue, we have not been able to...

Here are a few recent items related to Campaign Finance Reform From Public Campaign Action Fund: Connecticut A new survey in Connecticut shows that experienced candidates are likely to use the state’s new Clean Elections law this year in their races. Eighty-six percent of incumbents and 76 percent of returning 2006 candidates say they will participate, or are inclined to participate, in the Clean Elections full public financing program. For purposes of comparison, the first year that Clean Elections...

The actual title to this blog post at the New York Times was D.L.C. Leaders Cut Edwards Out Democratic Leadership Council on a conference call today told reporters they’re “very happy about the two candidates” Americans are considering…I think in the end, Senator Obama’s appeal that he’s made very firmly and directly to independent voters, and Senator Clinton’s appeal to the forgotten middle class are going to add up to a very smashing Democratic majority in the fall.”… During...

The NY Daily News reports Two from presidential reform group quit to draft Mayor Bloomberg for 2008 bid While the obvious interpretation of this is preparation for a Bloomberg presidential campaign perhaps there is another. If Bloomberg determines that the odds are against him for a run perhaps he might consider an alternate use for his resources that also serves his passion for Progressive Centrism. As he did in helping Senator Lieberman’s Campaign by assisting in data management of voters...

Apparently Unity08 has decided to scale-back and reconsider its mission. They were not able to attract enough support for their aim to help a third party/bipartisan ticket qualify in 50 States. Their formal statement follows below. While I am sympathetic with the intention of Unity08 to spark a movement towards trans-partisan collaboration, I never really agreed with their strategy. It seemed to me to be a relatively inefficient use of resources to try to end-run the major parties. I favored...

This item from the Carpetbagger Report is over a month old but still very timely. In a recent issue of National Review, Ramesh Ponnuru and Rich Lowry explained how Republicans can avert electoral disaster and get back on track. Conservative writers offer advice columns like these periodically, but this one included a concession we usually don’t see in print. The plain truth is that the [Republican] party faces a cataclysm, a rout that would give Democrats control of the White House and enhanced...

Along the path to heal Polarization is reform of Campaign finance and adjusting the legal rights of Corporations and other legal entities. I found these following astute comments at the progressive blog Alternet in response to an article by Nick Nyart of Public Campaign, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to reform that aims to dramatically reduce the role of big special interest money in American politics. After Nick’s article explaining how Campaign finance reform would go a...

I watched part of the bipartisan conference in Oklahoma today and read a statement by the group posted at this Newsday site. I am disappointed. To me they basically moaned about the lack of collaboration, and hoped that the presidential candidates would be more trans-partisan. yada, yada, yada. Only former Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa) pointed out that the reason we have this problem with polarization is because the cost of campaigns are prohibitive to most of us. Implying that the constant pandering...

In anticipation of the Centrist meeting in Oklahoma this weekend Mort Kondracke offers up an agenda in Moderate Graybeards Need a Top 10 Agenda. Here’s One This is a domestic policy list. The graybeards might also want to recommend a new American foreign policy that would include a bigger active-duty military trained for “nation building” and counter-insurgency, much-improved intelligence and expanded foreign aid and free trade, plus forceful — but sometimes coercive —...

Mark Statin’s “Radical Middle” site has created a list of the Centrists in Congress. “There Is a Radical Middle in Congress, and Its Stars Are Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Rep. Rush Holt(D-NJ)” December 2007. This month we polled 21 leading radical centrist thinkers and activists to determine the “Best Radical Middle or Post-Partisan Members of Congress.” They not only pinpointed Sen. Snowe and Rep. Holt, they threw the spotlight on 19 other members...

Berkley Bedell represented Iowa in the U.S. House from 1975 to 1987 and is working on behalf of Common Cause. He writes in the DesMoines Register about campaign Finance reform. …I’ve heard hundreds of candidates who said they were running to “change business as usual in Washington.” In fact, this presidential race has at least 15 candidates running for “change.” What’s wrong with Washington? Why does it always appear ripe for a change? I served in the U.S....

In the NY Times Article “Reshaping the Debate on Raising Taxes” Robert Frank wades into the middle of the controversy of whether taxes are too high or too low. In it he illustrates how framing questions to the public can illicit dramatically different responses. In the first survey, respondents were simply asked whether they favored the proposal (to repeal the estate tax). Almost 75 percent said they did. In the second, respondents were first told that lost revenue from eliminating the...

In “Democrats Rework the Rhetoric”, John D. MCKinnon writes in the Wall Street Journal about how a “Notion of the ‘Common Good’ Replaces Old-Style Bromides” …many Democrats are embracing it as a new framework for expressing their vision of broader opportunity and equality. ie, leveling the economic playing field and backing strong unions and universal health care, shared duties and responsibilities, not only among classes but between the two parties…it...

While watching Bill Moyers last night I learned of Catalog Choice – a free service that lets you decline paper catalogs you no longer wish to receive. Reduce the amount of unsolicited mail in your mailbox, while helping to preserve the environment. Every little bit helps…

Jon Meacham Reviewed “Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic” in the NYT Book Review this weekend. He helped highlight some of the book’s profound observations: “America was constructed to foster arguments, not to settle them.” “Modern political campaigns talk of revolution when in fact the founding gave us a nation that prefers evolution.” “…while perfection may not be possible, progress is.” “To transform disagreement...

Fair Elections Action Week, is on November 12-16, when activists all over the country will be organizing events to demand Fair Elections. Renowned author Frances Moore Lappé “Diet for a Small Planet” examines campaign finance reform through the eyes of Deborah Simpson, a smart, civic-minded former waitress and single mother who ran for a seat in Maine’s legislature under that state’s Clean Election law, and won! Comments by everyday Americans despairing over our Big...

November 12-16th Common Cause, Democracy Matters, Public Campaign, Public Citizen, and U. S. PIRG will join together to promote Fair Elections Action Week. The Fair Elections Now Act in the Senate, and similar legislation in House would bring full public financing to congressional elections and amplify a call for elections that are about voters, not big money donors. Fair Elections would change the way Senate campaigns are financed and allow Senators to spend more time focusing on the people they...

Steven Moore writes in the Wall Street Journal about how the world’s cup is more than half full in Clear-Eyed Optimists He refers to the United Nations report called “State of the Future” that concludes: “People around the world are becoming healthier, wealthier, better educated, more peaceful, more connected, and they are living longer.” Yes, of course, there was the obligatory bad news: Global warming is said to be getting worse and income disparities are widening....

Andrew Rosenthal, the editorial page editor of The New York Times, answered questions from readers Sept. 24-28. Link Finally, there are issues that the Times editorial board considers of transcendent importance — the nation’s security and its global image; the relationship between government and the people, which includes the balance among the branches of our democracy, civil liberties, civil rights, taxation, welfare, Medicare, Medicaid and a host of other issues. We are strong believers...

The Blog at The Nation presents a discussion of Public Financing of Campaigns. The “pressure for constant fundraising is unsustainable – there is a convergence of democratic values and ideals and more pragmatic considerations wrought by fundraising fatigue. (“The result of this nonsense is that almost one-third of a senator’s time is spent fundraising,” former Democratic Senator Ernest Hollings wrote in a Washington Post op-ed lat year.) There are two excellent bills...

June 20th the “Fair Elections Now Act” will have its first hearing before the Senate Rules Committee. Lead sponsors Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) will testify in support of the bill. This hearing is an important step in advancing the Fair Elections Now Act in the Senate, and winning full public financing for all congressional races. The four part approach in the “Fair Elections Now Act” would create a fair system of campaign financing to restore...

Bush and Democrats in Accord on Trade Deals Democrats to attach environmental and worker protections in several pending trade accords, clearing the way for early passage of some pacts and improving prospects for others… Charles B. Rangel, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, has led negotiations to complete the trade deals that guarantee workers the right to organize, ban child labor and prohibit forced labor in trading-partner countries. It would also require trading partners to enforce...

From the Democracy 21 Website: The Money Chase; Running for Dollars An editorial appeared today in The Washington Post entitled, ”The Money Chase.” An editorial also appeared today in The New York Times entitled, ”Running for Dollars.” The editorials support legislation to repair the presidential public financing system for future elections and urge presidential candidates to agree to accept public financing in the 2008 presidential general election. As I wade through all...

Jack Danforth for Attorney General This blog post at “The Hill” makes a persuasive case for nominating Centrist Republican Former Senator John Danforth to replace Mr. Gonzales. I am in favor of almost any effort to bring the political center of gravity back towards the middle.

David Brooks writes today in the New York Times (subscription) about the obsolete message of the GOP. …Today the big threats to people’s future prospects come from complex, decentralized phenomena: Islamic extremism, failed states, global competition, global warming, nuclear proliferation, a skills-based economy, economic and social segmentation. Normal, nonideological people are less concerned about the threat to their freedom from an overweening state than from the threats posed by...