Thanks for Commenting
There is also no connection between Heathers donors and her votes.
Fred, I agree with you.
So Bill does what he does because others do it.
Mike
The problem with Bill Richardson; the person is that he has not had to pay for anything for himself or his wife or girlfriend for that matter his entire life
A cup of coffee, the state pays for it out of his discretionary fund.
Lunch picked up by the lobbyist in the next booth.
Dinner picked by the campaign or by organization holding the dinner.
Vacation picked up by friends like Gerald Peters.
Transportion picked up by the state or friends or corporate friends like Herzog.
He might pay for his suits and household items but that is it.
He has been on the dole for his entire life, so we expect him to change is behavior now. Please
The problem is as long we do not publicly finance campaigns the impression of buying influence is there. Both parties do it. From a city councilor to a president.
Fred, I believe you missed the point.
There are politicans that sole purpose of running and being elected are to enhance themselves financially. One way to do it is to have friends/lobbyist pay for all of your expenses.
I believe that is the point.
PS public financing of campaigns has proven to be a failure look at two examples Albuquerque city council candidate Paulette D'Pascal and PUC candidate EEEEEE Shirley Baca.
Tom, where have you been the last year? Check the pay for play scandals across the nation. Hell just look at congress the last couple of years. Look past the city and see where it has worked.
Maybe you would rather have a donor purchase items for a candidate and get contracts worth 100 times that purchase.
Donors across the country get back money many times over. See who has received money and how much of it from pharmaceutical companies(including Heather) and see the benefits those companies got back, millions versus billions.
BTW look how well public financing has worked in Arizona.
Weel you cant blame
neocon nutcases inthe republican party for not wanting public fianncing of campaigns. The only advantage they have is raising huge sums of money from their corporate aristocracy. Without that they have nothing.
Richardson has been on public dole his entire life. And I do mean "dole". He has failed at every responsible position to which he has been either appointed or elected. His campaign for the democratic presidential nomination is a travesty, and we are paying his salary and giving him the other perks of the office while he is away. So in that sense, we have public financing of his campaign, and God help the public.
The fundamental problem is that the public has lost control over power and resources that are fundamentally their own.
That power will be restored through honest and transparent accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence for public servants within their public service.
Anything short of that is just putting out spot fires with no real consequence.
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