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U.S. Senate Candidate (and current NM SOS) Toulouse Oliver signs American Promise Pledge

 

(Sitting, Maggie Toulouse Oliver;  standing left to right are NMMOP’s Bruce Berlin, Charlotte Schaaf, David Burling, John House and Ishwari Sollohub)

On Friday, August 31, 2019, candidate for the U.S. Senate and current New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver signed the American Promise Candidate and Elected Official Pledge.   Sponsored by New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics and its national partner, American Promise,  the pledge seeksCongress to adopt  an amendment that would 1) secure fair, free elections by limiting the undue influence of money in politics; 2) protect the rights of all Americans to equal participation and representation, rather than overrepresentation of donors and special interests; and 3) protect the unalienable liberty of people rather than new privileges for the largest corporations, unions, and special interests. The pledge confirms the signor’s commitment and dedication to  use her office to advance this 28th Amendment in any and all legal ways, including, but not limited to: sponsoring or cosponsoring bills, resolutions, or other legislation advancing proposal or ratification of the 28th Amendment; voting in favor of such bills and resolutions in committee, subcommittee, or floor votes; working to build cross-partisan support; and publicly advocating for the necessity of this Amendment.

“I’ve signed the The American Promise Pledge marking my commitment to keep special interest money out of politics.  As a candidate who is refusing corporate PAC money, I affirm my pledge and hope that others will also vow to prioritize the needs of citizens over corporations.”
– Maggie Toulouse Oliver

For more information about the pledge and how you can help the effort to pass the 28thAmendment, please go to  28thAmendment or contact New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics at 505-231-1697.

 

 

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Call to Action: Contact Your MOCs and Urge the President and Senate to Appoint FEC Members

Please call, email, write a postcard and/orletter to Senators Udall and Heinrich  and your House Representative urging them to  put the heat on President Trump to nominate persons to fill the three empty positions on the Federal Election Commission. Contact information for your senators and representative can be found by clicking the down arrow beside the Home tab on this website and then clicking the subtab entitled “How to Contact Your Members of Congress.”

Please read this insightful article by Craig  Holman of Public Citizen about this crisis caused by the current administration’s failure to fulfill its responsibility:

Federal Election Commission Shut Down Ahead of Most Expensive Election in History

As the nation heads into the 2020 election cycle – an election that likely will reach an all-time spending record – the agency that monitors and enforces compliance with campaign finance laws on Saturday will lose the voting quorum to take any official actions due to the resignation of its vice chair. With only three members left on the six-member Federal Election Commission (FEC), the agency cannot meet, adopt rules and regulations, offer formal advice to candidates and committees, or enforce the law.

A Category 6 hurricane of Big Money is barreling toward us in 2020, and now the nation’s first responders are unable to act. Heading into what is sure to be the most expensive election in history, our nation’s campaign finance watchdog, the FEC, is now closed for business. And it won’t reopen until new commissioners are chosen and confirmed.

In ordinary times, we’d call on the president and the U.S. Senate to immediately fill the vacant FEC positions to prepare for the expected $8 billion in political spending in the 2020 elections. But who are we kidding? We already know they won’t – and that U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) will wring her hands in a practiced display of feigned disappointment.

President Donald Trump and many Senate Republicans – chief among them, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) – are openly contemptuous of campaign finance limits or electioneering rules of any kind and have shown they’re eager to lie, cheat, steal and rig elections to keep themselves and their party in power. Anti-government extremists in their party have for decades tried to shut down watchdog agencies and put billionaires and big corporations in charge. Now they’ve succeeded.

The question is whether Senate Democrats, the press and the public will raise holy hell to put a campaign finance cop back on the beat or meekly acquiesce to yet another Republican scheme to shut down a vital public interest watchdog in government and rig the political system in their favor.

Craig Holman is Government Affairs Lobbyist for Public Citizen