CNN political race coverage: on Government Reform
Dan Quayle:
Replace ‘Legal Aristocracy’ with pro-morality judges
“I want to focus on a sector of our society that has been largely exempt from the discussion and must be part of our effort to reverse the cultural decline: the legal system, and, specifically, the legal aristocracy,” Quayle said. “Values matter most.”
He promised, if elected, to nominate federal judges who “appreciate the indispensable role of religion and morality in our society’ and said such cultural shifts are the key to preventing problems like school shootings.”
Source: CNN.com coverage: AllPolitics
May 19, 1999
Ed Markey:
Ok with outside PAC ads, if positive ads
Markey and Kennedy sparred over a "People's Pledge," which would limit outside money spent in the race. Kennedy supports it, while Markey only limits negative advertisements. Markey has been endorsed by Environment Massachusetts, which plans to put
together a $5 million campaign to support his candidacy."We should welcome positive voices, disclosed voices," like those from "environmental groups," Markey said.
"Who gets to say these are voices we like?" Kennedy replied.
Source: CNN coverage of 2020 Massachusetts Senate debate
Feb 18, 2020
Elizabeth Dole:
Dole withdraws from race; cites campaign finance
Elizabeth Dole abandoned her bid for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination, citing an inability to raise money. "The bottom line remains money," she said. Later, she said soft money should be phased out. But she also said the $1,000
per donor contribution limit to presidential campaigns - set in 1974 - needs to be changed. "That doesn't even reflect the rate of inflation. [It should be] increased, perhaps to as much as $5,000."
Source: CNN.com coverage
Oct 20, 1999
Gary Bauer:
No campaign contributions from Hollywood
Bauer called for both Republican and Democratic parties to stop taking campaign contributions from the entertainment industry. He said those "Hollywood moguls and corporations" are "laughing all the way the bank with the millions that are being made from
the sludge they are pouring into the cultural stream that our kids are being exposed to."
Source: CNN coverage: AllPolitics
May 10, 1999
George W. Bush:
No government takeover of campaign finance
Bush called Gore's endowment proposal a "government takeover that replaces individual spending decisions with decisions made by an unelected government committee." He said the plan echoed Clinton's 1993 failed health care legislation. In a statement,
Bush described his campaign finance overhaul proposal as "superior because it abolishes corporate and union soft money without creating taxpayer-financed elections." Gore's plan is nothing more than "welfare for politicians," Bush's spokesman said.
Source: CNN.com coverage: AllPolitics
Mar 27, 2000
George W. Bush:
Make govt citizen-centered, results-oriented & market-based
Americans see a government slow to respond, slow to reform, and ignoring all the changes going on around it. I have set forth policies that capture my vision of government reform, guided by three principles: government should be citizen-centered, results
oriented, and, wherever possible, market-based. In size and scale, modern government will never resemble what the framers envisioned. In spirit, however, it should always be citizen-centered, always listening and answering directly to the people."
Source: CNN.com coverage
Jun 9, 2000
Gerry Connolly:
Investigate election fraud in NC-9 district race
A House Democrat is seeking an emergency hearing as investigators in North Carolina probe allegations of election fraud in a congressional race there. Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, a Democratic member of the House Oversight and Government Reform
Committee, said in a statement that "real election fraud is playing out right before us" in North Carolina's 9th District. "Votes have been stolen by preying on senior and minority voters, and now a cloud of doubt and suspicion hangs over this election
result," he said.The call for a congressional probe comes as North Carolina's elections board and local officials investigate the possibility that a man working for Republican candidate Mark Harris' campaign--who got 905 more votes than Democrat Dan
McCready in the race--used absentee ballots to alter the vote in Bladen County. The NC State Bureau of Investigations is probing whether absentee ballots were gathered ballots in areas considered to be supportive of McCready but never turned them in.
Source: CNN.com coverage of 2018 Congress VA-11 election
Dec 5, 2018
Hillary Clinton:
Soft money ban & independent ad ban for Senate campaign
If we could work out a ban on not only soft money but independent expenditures, which have already run ads against me, I think that would be a very good example to set for the rest of the country. I would not do it at all if they would not do it.
I was concerned by what I read about the practices being engaged by the Giuliani campaign. I think they do bear looking into.
Source: CNN.com coverage
Feb 11, 2000
Jesse Ventura:
Avoiding candidate debates cheats the American public
Q: Your reaction to the possibility that the Reform Party candidate may not be allowed in the presidential debates?JESSE VENTURA: I think it's despicable. Here in Minnesota when I ran, at the point of the primary, I was only polling 10%, which means
that if you went by their criteria, I would not have been allowed to debate and subsequently would have not won the election. It shows great fear on their part in the fact that a candidate like me can be at 10% and can turn around in a mere six weeks
and win. It's obviously clear to me that they don't want that to happen again. I think it's cheating the American public.
DONALD TRUMP: It's disgraceful. It's amazing that they can get away with it. I think they're very concerned.
I think they're extremely nervous about it. I also think that probably the law will be changed in this case, or the rule may be changed in this case, because it's just inconceivable to me that they can allow this to happen.
Source: CNN coverage of Reform Party Presidential Race
Jan 7, 2000
Jesse Ventura:
Get money out of politics, could be better spent elsewhere
Q: Do you support McCain-Feingold and campaign finance reform?VENTURA: I think that it touches on the subject but it doesn't go nearly as far as it ought to go. We're trying to pass that type of legislation here to try to get the
money out of politics. This last election, it was like 3 or 4 billion dollars were spent across the nation to elect candidates. Now imagine what we could do with that money if it wasn't being spent for that.
Source: CNN coverage: interview on Larry Kind Live show
Mar 14, 2001
Jesse Ventura:
We need to upgrade our voting process
I kind of don't like the Electoral College to begin with irrelevant of what happened in this [2000] election. I find it strange that someone can get the most votes and lose. We need to upgrade our voting process because the first thing
you'll find in state government when they want to cut something is they'll cut money out of voting. They learned a valuable lesson that maybe they ought to invest in voting a little bit more to keep the integrity of it to the level it should be.
Source: CNN coverage: interview on Larry Kind Live show
Mar 14, 2001
Jim DeMint:
Earmarks are how lobbyists grease the skids
Q: Lisa Murkowski in Alaska lost to a tea party candidate; Bob Bennett in Utah lost to a tea party candidate.DEMINT: These are appropriators, Bob Bennett, Lisa Murkowski. They believe in their job is to take home the bacon. It's a big part of the
culture here in Washington. Even in Alaska, the voters there threw out someone who was bringing home the bacon. Joe Miller, running against earmarks, because what we're hearing all over America is, "I don't want money for my state if it's going to
bankrupt my country."
Q: But we're talking, really, 1% or 2% of a budget here, when you're talking about the earmarks.
DEMINT: Oh, it's like saying the engine is a small part of the train. All the legislation, you look at health care, was pulled
through by "Cornhusker kickbacks," that's an earmark. The bail-outs failed in the House until they went back and added earmarks. So it's always a way to grease the skids, and it's the power here. It's why thousands of lobbyists are here.
Source: CNN "State of the Union" coverage: 2010 S.C. Senate debate
Sep 19, 2010
Joe Kennedy III:
Supports People's Pledge: no outside PAC spending
Markey and Kennedy sparred over a "People's Pledge," which would limit outside money spent in the race. Kennedy supports it, while Markey only limits negative advertisements. Markey has been endorsed by Environment Massachusetts, which plans to put
together a $5 million campaign to support his candidacy."We should welcome positive voices, disclosed voices," like those from "environmental groups," Markey said.
"Who gets to say these are voices we like?" Kennedy replied.
Source: CNN coverage of 2020 Massachusetts Senate debate
Feb 18, 2020
John McCain:
Campaign Finance: ban both labor union & corporate donations
McCain said that unlimited "soft money" contributions by businesses to political parties give corporations an undue influence over legislation. What is needed is comprehensive finance reform: "I would support no campaign finance reform that did not
require that every union member give their permission before the union spends money on politics. That's the good news. The bad news is I would also require that every stockholder give their permission" before businesses could make political contributions
Source: CNN.com coverage
May 10, 1999
John McCain:
Politicans poll, posture, & influence-peddle
"We have squandered the public trust. We have placed our personal and partisan interest before the national interest, earning the public's contempt for our poll-driven policies, our phony posturing, the lies we call spin and the damage control we
substitute for progress. And we defend a campaign finance system that is nothing less than an elaborate influence-peddling scheme in which both parties conspire to stay in office by selling the country to the highest bidder," McCain said.
Source: CNN coverage: AllPolitics
Jun 30, 1999
John McCain:
CFR passes Senate; focus on House, not court challenges
The Senate is expected to pass a bill to ban unlimited contributions to political parties, a practice known as "soft money." Supporters, including Senate sponsors John McCain, R-AZ, and Russ Feingold, D-WI, say the bill will break large donors' power
over lawmakers. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-KY, and other opponents argue it violates the right of free speech. In addition to banning soft money, it would raise the amount of direct contributions for candidates from $1,000 to $2,000, beef up disclosure
requirements and restrict advertising by independent groups. McCain said he would worry about a court challenge when it comes. First, he said, he will focus on getting the bill through the House of Representatives.
Republicans left open the possibility
that McCain would not even be named to the conference committee [which will work on the bill after House approval]. Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-NE, said McCain's views on campaign finance reform did not square with those of most of his GOP colleagues.
Source: CNN.com coverage
Apr 2, 2001
Julia Letlow:
Would have objected to certification of president election
In an interview before the election, Letlow told CNN she would have joined the majority of the House Republican Conference in objecting to the certification of the presidential election on
January 6, and she supports her state party's decision to censure GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy for his vote to convict Trump in his impeachment trial earlier this year.
Source: CNN.com coverage of 2021 LA-5 House incumbent
Mar 21, 2021
Ralph Nader:
Concentrated party power weakens democracy
In a January 17 column, Nader accused the major parties of purposely keeping small political parties off the ballot. In a subsequent column, he took on the media for failing to ask tough questions of candidates. "Every 4 years, a half-dozen campaigns
issues are drably questioned and drearily answered," he wrote. "Too much power in the hands of the few has weakened our democracy. People need stronger civic tools to band together, learn together and act together to make the Big Boys behave," he wrote.
Source: CNN.com coverage
Feb 17, 2000
Roy Moore:
Presidents should show birth certificates; question Obama's
Roy Moore has cast doubt on former President Barack Obama's citizenship repeatedly and as recently as December 2016, fueling the debunked "birther" movement that sought to delegitimize Obama's presidency.Moore, who started questioning the legitimacy
of Obama's citizenship back in 2008, last year told a meeting of the Constitution Party that he personally did not believe Obama was a natural-born citizen: "My opinion is, there is a big question about that," Moore said when asked how he defines
natural-born citizen as it relates to qualifications for president. Moore's comments came three months after then-Republican nominee Donald Trump conceded that Obama was born in the US after pushing the racially charged birther conspiracy for years.
In 2013, Moore dissented in an Alabama Supreme Court case closely tied to the birther conspiracy, writing that the state should "investigate the qualifications of those candidates who appeared on the 2012 general-election ballot."
Source: CNN.com coverage of 2017 Alabama Senate race
Aug 22, 2017
Larry Elder:
Set up voter integrity website in 2021 recall election
Elder--echoing claims made by Trump during and after the 2020 election, as well as comments about the California race from right-wing media--has started to question the possible election results, telling supporters that his campaign is ready and
willing to file lawsuits and pointing them to a campaign website portal that allows people to report possible issues. "We have a voter integrity board all set up - most of these are lawyers," Elder said.
Source: CNN coverage of 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Sep 8, 2021
Page last updated: Oct 26, 2024