CNN N. H. Town Hall: on Government Reform


Deval Patrick: Democracy Agenda: first legislative package as president

We keep engineering obstacles to get democratic outcomes out of our democracy, the gerrymandering, the vote suppression and purging, the amount of money, much of it dark, in our politics today, the influence of lobbyists. All of that is what we get at in the Democracy Agenda, which would be the very first legislative package I would send forward.

Because without that, moving so much, so many of the big ideas that I and others have, will be doubly difficult. So that's some of how I think about it, thank you.

Source: CNN N. H. Town Hall on eve of 2020 N. H. primary Feb 6, 2020

Andrew Yang: Make Election Day a national holiday

Q: How would you change things as far as campaign financing?

YANG: We need to publicly finance elections. There are many, many things we should do to improve our democracy. Every Democrat believes we should overturn Citizens United that has allowed dark money into politics. The two tough truths around this, it requires a supermajority to overturn Citizens United, and corporate money ran our elections and our government before that ruling. It just became more extreme afterwards. But we should have ranked choice voting in this country so that people can actually vote the way they want and not be worried about "wasting their vote." We should have Election Day be a national holiday. We should automatically register new voters to make it easier for people to register to vote, instead of having these obstacles. And again, the best way out is for us to publicly finance these elections through a democracy dollars program so that anyone who wants to give to a candidate has 100 free dollars to do so.

Source: CNN N. H. Town Hall on eve of 2020 N. H. primary Feb 5, 2020

Elizabeth Warren: Current election financing system favors rich

If we want to have a government that just works for millionaires and billionaires, we should continue a financing system that is largely driven by millionaires and billionaires and PAC money. We can't have a government that continues to work better and better for a smaller and smaller group at the top and doesn't work for the rest of us.
Source: CNN N. H. Town Hall on eve of 2020 N. H. primary Feb 5, 2020

  • The above quotations are from CNN N. H. Town Hall on eve of N. H. primary
    at Saint Anselm College, Manchester NH.
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2020 Presidential contenders on Government Reform:
  Democrats running for President:
Sen.Michael Bennet (D-CO)
V.P.Joe Biden (D-DE)
Mayor Mike Bloomberg (I-NYC)
Gov.Steve Bullock (D-MT)
Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D-IN)
Sen.Cory Booker (D-NJ)
Secy.Julian Castro (D-TX)
Gov.Lincoln Chafee (L-RI)
Rep.John Delaney (D-MD)
Rep.Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI)
Sen.Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
Gov.Deval Patrick (D-MA)
Sen.Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
CEO Tom Steyer (D-CA)
Sen.Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
Marianne Williamson (D-CA)
CEO Andrew Yang (D-NY)

2020 Third Party Candidates:
Rep.Justin Amash (L-MI)
CEO Don Blankenship (C-WV)
Gov.Lincoln Chafee (L-RI)
Howie Hawkins (G-NY)
Gov.Gary Johnson(L-NM)
Howard Schultz(I-WA)
Gov.Jesse Ventura (I-MN)
Republicans running for President:
Sen.Ted Cruz(R-TX)
Gov.Larry Hogan (R-MD)
Gov.John Kasich(R-OH)
V.P.Mike Pence(R-IN)
Gov.Mark Sanford (R-SC)
Pres.Donald Trump(R-NY)
Rep.Joe Walsh (R-IL)
Gov.Bill Weld(R-MA & L-NY)

2020 Withdrawn Democratic Candidates:
Sen.Stacey Abrams (D-GA)
Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-NYC)
Sen.Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
Sen.Mike Gravel (D-AK)
Sen.Kamala Harris (D-CA)
Gov.John Hickenlooper (D-CO)
Gov.Jay Inslee (D-WA)
Mayor Wayne Messam (D-FL)
Rep.Seth Moulton (D-MA)
Rep.Beto O`Rourke (D-TX)
Rep.Tim Ryan (D-CA)
Adm.Joe Sestak (D-PA)
Rep.Eric Swalwell (D-CA)
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Page last updated: Mar 11, 2020