Mark Shields Quotes

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

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

Well I think money has been going into political campaigns for a very long time.

I will not be doing Super-Pacs of any sort. I think allowing unlimited contributions to campaigns is a terrible and an unfortunate step towards plutocracy.

There's no doubt that there's a public backlash against the way campaign money is raised, but I don't think the only alternative is to elect people with money.

We need to end unlimited, unaccountable money for all political parties by passing comprehensive campaign finance reform.

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.

The only tool we have to fix the problems of this country - the democratic process - is itself broken. Which is why nothing will fundamentally change until we solve the problem of money in politics.

I would do away with super PACs. I think it's a cancer.

Our only real hope for democracy is that we get the money out of politics entirely and establish a system of publicly funded elections.

I think that's most unfortunate about our Democratic system, that you're confining it to people who are either very wealthy in their own right or have capacity to gain access to large amounts of money.

Corporations are not people. They shouldn't be funding. They shouldn't be funding campaigns at all.

Until we totally change the way we elect our leaders, until we remove private money from public campaigns, lying will be the de facto method of governance in this country.

By law, super PACs are required to disclose their donors. There are groups that have never had to disclose their donors, non-profits such as the Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood, the NAACP, and the NRA. If you want more disclosure, super PACs are a step forward.

A political race today, even a primary, is $150 million. The whole political system has become obscene in terms of the absurd amount of money that is required to compete. Just put it on ESPN and call it a sporting event.

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

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.

As dismayed as Americans are with the influence of the special interests that finance election campaigns, they've been reluctant to embrace the alternative: taxpayer-financed elections.

Politics has become so expensive that it takes a lot of money even to be defeated.

The McCain-Feingold limit on how much you give a candidate didn't really work because people found ways to get around it.

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.

One of the biggest issues for me is campaign finance reform.

Soft money will find its way and seep into the political system and corrode it, unless we plug every hole.

Rule of Dark Matter: SuperPAC dollars cannot be seen by most voters but account for most of the money in this universe.

It is not that candidates who get the most money win, but that winning candidates get the most money.