As much as we can, we need to take money out of government politics.
We need to take back control of our elections from lobbyists, special interests, and foreign entities. Our government is meant to be “of the people, by the people, for the people”…..not of the few, by the few, for the few, for the special interests, for the lobbyists.
“Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.” -Ronald Reagan
Our election process has become more about fund raising than about the issues. The lobbyist and special interest impacts in our elections have grown beyond the point where they can’t be properly vetted and candidates are unknowingly accepting donations from lobbyists that represent bad actors. Here in Hawai’i, both Senator Hirono and Senator Schatz accepted thousands of dollars in campaign donations from the Podesta Group. The Podesta Group was found to be lobbying the US government to legitimize former Russian-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Tony Podesta had to step down from his lobbying firm after it was found to be in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
And on FARA, we need to repeal the Foreign Agents Registration Act. FARA is a United States law passed in 1938 requiring that agents representing the interests of foreign powers in a “political or quasi-political capacity” disclose their relationship with the foreign government and information about related activities and finances. The purpose is to facilitate “evaluation by the government and the American people of the statements and activities of such persons.” There is “no” reason for foreign entities to have “any” influence over our elections. We have ambassadors and embassies for interacting with foreign entities.
“There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.” -Ronald Reagan
In adhering to my stance on campaign spending reform, I self-funded my campaign finances in the 2018 primary election and spent less than $2000. We prevailed in the eight-candidate US Senate primary election on a strong message, not by spending a large amount of money. In the 2020 CD-1 Congressional primary election, we again prevailed and only spent $75 to file the candidate nomination papers. After both the 2018 and 2020 primaries, I started accepting donations of up to $200 from private citizens who wanted to financially support our campaign in the effort to drive positive change in our government for the people of Hawai’i.