Peter DeFazio Quotes
But they are not going to take on Big Oil because Big Oil is very generous at campaign time, and this is all about the elections. They want to pretend that they are doing something meaningful.
DeFazio, Peter. "Price Gouging Act of 2006." Congressional Record, vol. 152, no. 51, Government Publishing Office, 3 May 2006, p. H2003.
He made this quotation when he was a member of the Wisconsin State legislator. He was describing the influence and interaction that corporations had with the Wisconsin state legislative process.
He was right but his timing was a little early.
At the time this was a very widely held, bipartisan view. See {634818} . Given statements like this, TR if he were alive today would never be able to get the Republican Nomination for President; nor could he obtain the Democratic Nomination because of his view on the military, expansionism, defense spending and war.
Not only both parties agreed on the evil of corporate money in politics, but there was not even a single dissent on this point. Also, the President was in agreement {634816}. A century later, there were only a handful of senators who did not think that corporate money was critical in politics. This was a flip flop for BOTH major parties.
He had been serving as a University President. One change was the unlimited corporate funds that could then be donated to campaigns by corporations. “Super-Pacs” were one of these vehicles. Kerrey refused to use them. His opponent did not. His opponent was able to spend much more money on his campaign. Kerrey lost.
See {640687}. He was then very worried about the influence of money in politics and was willing to risk his own reelection by limiting his contributions. And he was the Republican presidential candidate so his policy was particularly unusual. A century later money in politics had ballooned to a much larger problem as Taft’s action had little or no effect on the overall relationship between money and politics outside of his campaign.
Politicians and large political donors supporting the private campaign donation process tend to argue that businesses make contributions for patriotic and good government reasons and not as investments, but when business executives are asked by shareholders why they spend so much company money for campaign contributions, the inevitably respond that investing in campaign contributions provide a better return than most other investments. If they were so interested in good government they might spend more money on voter education.
Peter Anthony DeFazio is the U.S. Representative for Oregon's 4th congressional district, serving since 1987. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes Eugene, Springfield, Corvallis, Roseburg, Coos Bay and Florence. He chairs the House Transportation Committee and is a founder of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. A native of Massachusetts and a veteran of the United States Air Force Reserve, he previously served as a county commissioner in Lane County, Oregon. He is dean of Oregon's House delegation.
