John Sarbanes Quotes

I'm not going to take any special interest money or any PAC money... when I get to Washington I want to be the voice for the people of Connecticut and not owe special favors.

Until we make campaigns affordable, then we're going to have too many members of Congress out rattling the cup with special interest groups.

Anyone who has been around Washington politics long enough can't avoid this truism: Election-year money is like a rushing river that invariably finds cracks in any dam the reformers erect.

I'm voting for Bernie Sanders because he doesn't take any corporate money.

Do the elected officials in Washington stand with ordinary Americans - working families, children, the elderly, the poor - or will the extraordinary power of billionaire campaign contributors and Big Money prevail? The American people, by the millions, must send Congress the answer to that question.

I think that Obama's failure to reestablish the rule of law in money matters is the most damaging thing that he's done - and perhaps the most damaging thing that has happened in American politics in my lifetime. Because once the rule of law is absent in money matters, then anything really goes in politics.

There can only be democracy when money is not allowed to be spent in Politics.

I've made it clear that I'm not taking special interest PAC money or accepting donations from lobbyists - ever. I want to represent the interests of the citizens.

All elections revolve around and are often resolved by who raises the most money. That's unfair. I'd like to see that process changed, but it seems once you win and get to Congress, that doesn't happen.

The people of this country, not special interest big money, should be the source of all political power.

There are over 30,000 lobbyists circling around the 535 members of Congress. The people should have their Senator as their lobbyist.

With every new class of representatives that comes to Congress, there is a greater recognition of the perils of private financing of campaigns. I believe that by pulling back the curtain on the daily pressures faced by members of Congress, we can show the public how critical this reform is to the salvation of our democracy.

Who is in charge? Is it taxpayers or is it the special interest groups?

If everyone in America can easily see who and what their lawmakers are requesting taxpayer money for, we can keep elected officials honest, end the days of political, special interest favors, and reduce wasteful spending.

Trying to take money out of politics is like trying to take jumping out of basketball.

Money has too big an influence on our politics in Washington and somehow we need to do something about that.

It's time to bring tough medicine to Washington. No longer will policy be set by K Street, it will be dictated by Main Street.

I think we have to look at the whole way campaigns are financed. The No. 1 problem is PAC and special-interest money.

Money often determines not only who gets elected, but what gets done. Which voices do lawmakers listen to, the banks or home owners, coal companies, or asthma sufferers, the CEOs or the unemployed?

What we have now is a situation where politicians get a whole bunch of money from mainly business interests. Then once they hold that office, they spend all their time in office paying back over and over again those campaign contributions through various favors and contracts and that sort of thing.

I think the idea of getting money out of politics is critical.

In Maine, we are fortunate to have a Clean Elections system that allows legislators to turn down corporate special interest money. At the national level, Congress should follow Maine's example by empowering the voices of small donors.

I can tell you that too much money is corrupting American politics. Don't blame the American public. The U.S. Supreme Court has a lot to answer for, because it has made it impossible for Congress to reduce the corrupting influence of money on American political life.

If you create a system that makes the small donors the linchpin of the system in terms of how members of Congress directly raise the funds for their campaigns, then it gives everyday citizens much more of a role - a leveraging role - in the funding of those campaigns.

In every jurisdictional area that I can get my fingers on, I want to move us away from the Washington insider economy.