Doris Haddock on Government Reform
Campaign finance reform would be top priority if elected
Q: What are the top issues you'd work on if you are elected?A: Campaign finance reform. We need to let Senators represent their constituents, without undue influence from the special interest groups that presently fund their reelection campaigns.
My victory would be a good sign that people can win elections without all that money, and I would try to convert some of my fellow Senators to that new way of running and winning. Smaller donations from real people should be the norm.
Source: Campaign website, GrannyD.com, "On The Issues"
Sep 1, 2004
Democracy cannot be hired out
Haddock declared. "Democracy cannot be hired out. There is too much power involved, and it corrupts absolutely if we, the common people, do not manage it ourselves with a humble spirit and a willingness to cast our own self-interest into oblivion....
If our choice is between a strip-searched Fortress America and, on the other hand, the beautiful world we all long for, what is keeping us from making the beautiful choice?
Is it the distortions of the political system? The special interests?
The selfish posturing of people who call themselves leaders but who, in fact, only take up valuable space at a critical time in the world's history? Well, let us joyfully roll over them."
Source: Adam Reilly, Boston Phoenix, p.1
Aug 20, 2004
Pledges to stick to one term, notes Gregg broke same promise
For those who may be concerned about my age, let me say that I have outlived most of the things that can kill me, and am good for another election or two. Nevertheless, I make my pledge right now to stick to one term, and I have the
biological ability to follow through with that pledge, while Mr. Gregg, who, two elections ago, made a pledge to not run for a third term, has neither the ripe age nor, it seems, the willpower to deliver on his promise.
Source: Senate candidacy announcement speech
Jun 17, 2004
Democracy is the antidote for corruption
Chinese President Hu is calling for more democracy in China as an antidote to corruption. Large political systems have corruption. The opposite of corruption in large political systems is not sainthood--not in this life. The opposite of corruption is
democracy. People tend to not choose to be oppressed and exploited and starved when they have a voice in the matter. Look at the great tax giveaway to America's richest of the rich and see it as a failure of representative democracy.
Source: Speech at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government
Oct 2, 2003
We need fair voting, good candidates, and good citizens
The parchment document of the Constitution is not enough-we also require supportive institutions and sacred processes; we need these five things:- We need fair and accurate voting systems that we can trust beyond a shadow of doubt
- We need worthy
candidates who represent our interests and values and who are free from entangling financial obligations to special interests
- We need a free press that takes as a sacred trust its duty to inform the citizenry on the great and small issues of the day,
regardless of the popular appeal of those stories and regardless of the profitability of providing that coverage
- We must be an unhurried society, with each of us given the time and resources to be active citizens, not mere mice on corporate treadmills
- We must be an educated people, forever students of the vital issues before us, so that, as a self-governing people, we might govern ourselves well. Our schools must produce citizens.
In many of these five areas, we are now in trouble.
Source: Speech on voter rights in Tallahassee, Florida
Jun 17, 2001
Vote against any candidate who supports soft money
I propose that Congressional incumbents and challengers say yes or no to a simple, 25-word pledge. It reads as follows:I pledge my vote and full procedural support to ban soft money-the unlimited contributions to state and federal political
races that undermine our democracy.
If your incumbents will not take this simple pledge, vote against them no matter how much you love them. Our way of life as a free and equal people is at stake, and we have no room in this battle for
those who will not do the thing we all know is right.I am suggesting this pledge here for the first time. I will go to Washington to see who will take the pledge and who will not. Then we will be ready for the coming elections, and I will
ask my old bones and my many new friends to visit the states where we might do some good in these elections, and to raise a ruckus in those elections on behalf of our democracy and our grandchildren's future as free men and women.
Source: Speech in Clarksburg, West Virginia
Jan 1, 2000