Did you watch the Nebraska State Fair debate last week? The panel got to campaign finance — how our elections get paid for.
I told the truth: unlimited money from billionaires, corporations, and shadowy outside groups are warping this country’s politics, and it started with a Supreme Court decision called Citizens United.
I want it overturned. I have said that in every county I’ve been to, and I said it again with the cameras rolling. Then I looked over at the man standing next to me. |
My opponent, Pete Ricketts, raised $6.3 million in one quarter this year. $5.2 million of it came from his own bank account. Think about that for a second.
He is the heir to a fortune. He can write his campaign a check bigger than most Nebraska towns will see in a lifetime, and then go to Washington owing nothing to the people who live here.
I think that’s totally wrong.
I’m an industrial mechanic. I’ve spent my life in boiler rooms and on picket lines. The only reason I’m on a ballot at all is that tens of thousands of regular people decided to put a few bucks behind a guy like them.
That is exactly the point I was trying to make on that stage. This isn’t left versus right. It’s whether working people still get a say, or whether the folks who can afford to buy the microphone get to do all the talking.
If you believe elections should belong to people and not to checkbooks, prove it with me by chipping in $5 right now: |
Let's finish the fight. Dan Osborn |
