Press Conference Drives Reform Message

Yesterday I wrote about driving home that progressive populist messaging. Today on Capitol Hill, we continued to drive that into the media, with allies in the House holding a press conference to talk about the three-point "Fight Washington Corruption" pledge MoveOn has brought out, endorsed by over 500,000 individuals, 201 members of Congress and candidates, and fourteen different leading progressive organizations.

Rep. Chris Murphy was joined by seven House Members -- my old friends Jan Schakowsky and Chellie Pingree, along with new colleagues Betty Sutton, Raul Grijalva, Paul Hodes, Keith Ellison, and Paul Tonko. Each Member spoke passionately about the reforms Congress needs to pass to provide more transparency and clean elections. Rep. Pingree spoke about her daughter, Hannah Pingree, and her first campaign for state House, which she won at the age of 25 under clean elections law; today, she is 33 and the Speaker of the House in Maine. Rep. Tonko gave an impassioned statement about getting corporate money out of elections. Rep. Murphy and Rep. Sutton were able to give first-hand experience with third party groups advertising in their districts, without disclosing to their constituents who is paying for the ads.

This is exactly the kind of message we need to be driving as part of a larger campaign in these elections -- that change has not come to Washington because corporations have been too big a part of the roadblocks. Citizens United, the lack of public financing and clean elections, and the revolving door between Capitol Hill and K Street are all part of that. Moreover, they're all simple concepts that voters understand. This is a message that works this fall which Democrats have to start using.