Chris Murphy Quotes

The spree of big money campaigning—and the corruption that goes with it—seems guaranteed to worsen …. Campaign money handlers will keep pushing the limits wherever and however they can—and the integrity of our electoral system will pay the price.

There will be more [political] scandals. There is too much money around …. It is legal for an American subsidiary corporation owned by the Chinese Army to make a major contribution to an American political party.

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

It challenges a linguist to define modern campaign contributions as something other than bribery.

The Federal campaign contribution limit of $2,500 is way too low. You can’t even buy a Democrat for $2,500.

This [political fundraising] is a very sophisticated system … This is a legalized bribery system where no one has to say anything. I don’t have to say what I want—you [the politician] know what I want.

The evils of the use of corporate money in connection with political elections are so generally recognized that the committee deems it unnecessary to make any argument in favor of the general purpose of this measure.

And when the guy [politician] says “Yes, I took money, but it didn’t influence my vote”? Oh, come on. The company that’s giving you the money thinks it is going to influence the vote. Why else would they give you the money?

A millionaire can buy a Senate seat just as he would buy an opera box or a yacht or any other luxury in which he can afford to indulge himself. In some instances the sale takes the form of open bribery of the legislators; more often the Senate seat was simply the satisfaction of a ‘claim’ acknowledged by the leaders of the party and created by large contributions to the party treasury.

Almost every day, you see an article in the papers about someone violating a campaign finance law.

Up against the corporate government, voters find themselves asked to choose between look-alike candidates from two parties vying to see who takes the marching orders from their campaign paymasters and their future employers. The money of vested interest nullifies genuine voter choice and trust.

Actually criminal sanctions that are given could be up to five years for violating the rules and regulations under the campaign finance reform. This is like the Alien and Sedition Act of years and years ago, decades ago.

Who do you think controls the Republican Party? Big money controls the Republican Party. This is where their campaign contributions come from.

You can't take a congressman to lunch for $25 and buy him a hamburger or a steak or something like that. But you can take him to a fund-raising lunch and not only buy him that steak, but give him $25,000 extra and call it a fund-raiser - and have all the same access and all the same interactions with that congressman.

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

I don't think politicians should be allowed to take money for their campaigns from outside interests.

I'm convinced that unless you have some public financing of elections, you are never going to remove the power of wealthy interests over elected officials.

Let's not overlook, though, what we do know about the campaign finance scandal, and the fact the Chinese were involved in our presidential campaign and our congressional campaigns.

It starts with campaign finance reform.

The American system of political spending is so unregulated that it might make Adam Smith rethink free markets.

The kind of corruption the media talk about, the kind the Supreme Court was concerned about, involves the putative sale of votes in exchange for campaign contributions.

As long as we, in the United States, continue to insist that our politicians have to spend all of their time raising millions of dollars for television ads, it will be corrupt. If we leave it up to the politicians to clean up lobbying and finance reform, nothing is going to change.

I don't trade my vote for money.

He [Donald Trump] buys and sells politicians of all stripes.

No politician ever admits where all his money comes from.