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Toomey: Remove ALL Campaign Finance Limits

Toomey: Remove ALL Campaign Finance Limits

Opposes Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Laws, Calls for Unlimited Contributions

MEDIA, Pa. – Even amid a growing scandal surrounding unlimited, anonymous foreign donations to groups allied with his campaign, Congressman Toomey yesterday called for removalof all limits on campaign contributions to federal candidates. This would allow millions more to flow directly into his campaign war chest from special interest groups – and wealthy Wall Street allies – currently held at bay by commonsense reform laws.

“Despite the fact that outside special interest groups have already poured millions into Pennsylvania to mislead voters on Congressman Toomey’s behalf, it is remarkable that he would take a position so far out-of-touch with Pennsylvania ” said Sestak campaign spokesman Jonathon Dworkin. “The implications of returning to a free-for-all, in which only candidates with the wealthiest friends are able to buy their way into public office by drowning out the opposition, would be disastrous.  We need leaders who will stand-up and fight for average Pennsylvanians.”

Toomey’s shocking opposition to the commonsense contribution limits imposed by bipartisan legislation like McCain-Feingold places him far to the right of his own party. These regulations were designed and enacted to mitigate the direct, corrosive influence that big-money donors and major corporations with deep pockets can have on political campaigns.

According to this morning’s Philadelphia Daily News:

Philly Clout’s Chris Brennan: “Do you support the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on Citizens United and what do you think about the lack of transparency in funding that has resulted in advocacy ads attacking both you and your opponent in this race? “

Congressman Toomey: “Well, I do support the decision, but I think that there is, we have a very very unfortunate and strange, strangely cobbled-together set of election laws. I’ve advocated for a long time that the best way to approach campaign finance is to allow unlimited contributions and require immediate disclosure.” [Philadelphia Daily News, 10/15/10]

Admiral Sestak strongly supports the commonsense campaign contribution limits already on the books, and has also strongly supported measures like the DISCLOSE Act, to make our electoral process even more open and accountable. Especially in the wake of the disastrous Citizens United ruling – which Congressman Toomey applauded – Joe knows it is more important than ever to curb the power of the special interests in Washington. That’s why he opposes any effort to roll back essential campaign finance reform, and believes our political discourse should thrive on an exchange of ideas — a “great debate” — not a constant barrage of corporate-funded television ads.

To increase transparency and accountability in our democratic process after the Citizens United ruling, Joe Sestak introduced the Fairness in Corporate Campaign Spending Act of 2010 (H.R. 4644), which would prohibit a corporation from spending company money on elections without obtaining the prior approval of a majority of its shareholders, the true owners of the companies, rather than allowing corporate CEOs to decide how to direct millions of dollars to their preferred candidates. This legislation, along with the DISCLOSE Act, must represent interim steps on a path to a system of public financing. Joe is also a co-sponsor of The Fair Elections Now Act (H.R. 1826), which would create a voluntary  public campaign finance system to provide a 4-to-1 public-funding match on donations of $100 or less.

In addition to having no special exemption for the most powerful organizations, Joe Sestak has called for a stronger DISCLOSE Act that would require reporting all donors to organizations making campaign expenditures, not just those who contribute more than $600.

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