Zephyr Teachout Quotes

Everyone knows the presidential candidates and has an opinion about them. But as you get to smaller races, that evaporates and you can win through sheer elbow grease.

With super PACs, we've seen voter turnout go up; interest in elections rise; and the number of competitive races increase. The campaigns of 2010 and 2012 have been more issue-oriented than their predecessors, not less.

You don't win elections on Election Day. You win them by what you do all year round, by the day-to-day good will you generate in each precinct.

Iowa has long been heralded as a bulwark against the money and media that dominate the modern presidential race. Its caucus requires voters in every precinct to actually gather in a room, at one time, and listen to neighbors pitch their chosen candidates, before they are allowed to vote.

When Donald Trump became the candidate we didn't have any money other than Mr. Trump's money and I don't think he wanted to write that check all himself. We needed to create a grassroots campaign and we needed to go out and find millions of people to be our supporters and Facebook allowed us to do that in alarming numbers, very fast.

You now have six-year campaigns for the Senate - you never stop running. It's not uncommon for a member of the Senate to have a fundraising breakfast, a fundraising lunch and a fundraising dinner, and then when the Senate breaks for the week to go home, more fundraisers. And that's driven by the cost of campaigning.

I came very close to quitting my job for the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign. I seriously considered packing up my office and heading home to Colorado.

Well, I know I worked for Governor Rockefeller the last time he ran for his fourth term, and I obviously ran against Governor Cuomo the time he ran for his fourth term.

The DISCLOSE Act is a testament to the wisdom of the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United. The First Amendment sought to place political speech beyond the government's control, and we can be glad that it did.

The Latino vote has to be earned just like any other.

I lost my first run for office, but I developed a great love for grassroots politics.

Congressman are spending too much time raising money.

I’m hedging my bets. We got campaign contributions to both sides.

A few people have big free speech and the rest of us have little free speech. Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission was decided wrongly.

The tactics and strategy of every Presidential election campaign is most influenced by the previous Presidential election.

Until the 1980s, candidates spent a fraction of their time talking to donors; just a few weeks a year, a little more right before an election. True, they'd fund raise from the wealthy interests, as they do now, but it was a minuscule part of their job: policy and constituent services were the heart of the work.

I guess I was a little idealistic and thought if you are honest and you're well-qualified and capable of waging a good fight, you can raise money. And what I learned is that our campaign finance laws are really a great big incumbent protection act.

We agree that Citizens United is a very bad decision. We don't believe outspending your opponent is the way to go, since we don't believe we will ever be outspending our opponents!

Bernie Sanders deserves a lot of credit because he has raised issues.

During my time as a political strategist, one of the most vexing problems was figuring out why so many people vote against their perceived interests.

I went to the Women's Campaign School at Yale; I went to Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Training, women's campaign fund training. I got to know the district really well by talking to the county chair, getting to know politics, working on some local races.

Nobody ever wins the first time they run for office. Nobody's ever supposed to win their first bid for office. Nobody's ever supposed to win without taking lobbyists' money. No one's ever supposed to defeat an incumbent. No one's ever supposed to run a grassroots campaign without running any ads on television. We did all of those things.

I was deep into it - worldwide liberation politics as well as domestic - but by the end of the '80s, I had decided it all comes down to one single issue: campaign-finance elimination.

I see people like me, who thought someone like me couldn't be in politics, now are saying, 'Oh, wait, I don't need to take money from corporations to run. Maybe I'll run, too.'

We must invest in and empower our state and local parties by creating effective field operations, an enhanced and advanced voter file, and a culture of collaboration between candidates at every level. Let's put the voters first.