Dear Friend,
Over Presidents Day, I thought a great deal about the Constitution and the individual liberties that the Presidents we celebrate this month fought to protect, at great cost.
I am particularly dismayed by the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision last month in Citizens United, which struck down a century of law prohibiting corporations to use their general funds in favoring or opposing particular candidates. With the Citizens United decision, corporations can now spend unlimited amounts of money to finance candidate advertising at any time during an election period, reversing decades of progressive campaign finance reform. Many of my Congressional colleagues and I moved quickly to decry this stunning example of judicial activism. And, President Obama utilized his recent State of the Union address to publicly direct his administration to immediately work with bipartisan Congressional leaders to "develop a forceful response to this decision."
In short order, I chaired a hearing in my subcommittee (watch video here http://www.youtube.com/jerrynadler ) to examine possible legislative responses to this disastrous decision. So now that corporations - including those controlled by foreign interests - have the same rights as any voter, what is in store for our democracy? Perhaps, one day, I will have Exxon as a colleague here in Congress.
With the Citizens United decision, a challenger to me or any other progressive Member of Congress can be backed by unlimited funds from big oil or any other corporate interest, which could be used to drown out my pro-environment, pro-regulation message when I refuse to toe the line. As Doug, a constituent and supporter, wrote at the blog FireDogLake.com recently:
"Rep. Nadler has been on the right side of darn near every issue I can think of that progressives care about. He's smart, he's tough, he's got tremendous experience bringing progressive heat to Washington's lukewarm oatmeal, and his loss would be incalculable. Normally I'd say he's a 'safe' incumbent, but thanks to the Supremes, we can assume that the big corporations will be gunning for this guy, and he'll need our thanks for his outstanding record, expressed in dollar form."
If you agree with Doug that the current state of campaign finance is a grave cause for concern, please make a contribution to my leadership PAC , which is one way progressives can counter the overwhelmingly conservative corporate noise machine and its nearly unlimited funds. My PAC contributes directly to progressive candidates around the country, year-round.
Thank you for all that you do.
Best,
Congressman Jerry Nadler