Eric Swalwell Quotes

I think Matt Yglesias is wrong to declare that the world of 'This Town' is dying, unless he thinks publicly financed elections, strict lobbying bans and Scandinavian-style wealth distribution are imminent.

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.

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.

What has become clear to many Americans is that the electoral system is bankrupt. As the political process becomes more privatized, outsourced, and overrun with money from corporations and billionaires, a wounded republic is on its death bed, gasping for life.

The reality is that asking the public to fund political campaigns accomplishes nothing. Candidates continue to seek interest-group support through other channels, both financial and in-kind, and corruption problems abound.

We don't need to allow any more Nancy Pelosies to wind up in Congress.

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.

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

Public [campaign] financing and free television time are the things that will diminish the high influence that money has on politics.

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.

That would be the biggest shake-up Washington ever had, if big money didn't dictate who the candidates were and who got elected.

For all the manufactured 'Republican versus Democrat' drama that dominates today's cable news and political rhetoric, the most striking feature of our present-day democracy is not partisan divide - it's a corrupt system that protects incumbents from the consequences that real democracy brings.

I think our politicians are bought by the highest bidder and that until we clean up our election system, then we cannot make progress on any of the issues. That's what drives me - we must restore our democracy.

Here in Maine, we know that the system of special interests influencing elections runs contrary to our democratic values.

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

The SuperPACs and the Citizens United ruling that gives corporations a voice in the political process are all bad news. They made it so you can now lie, and the politician being promoted on that lie will not be held responsible for it.

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.

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

The democratic process is supposed to be one person one vote, but it turns out that money is talking louder than the votes.

I do not believe wealthy candidates should spend vast resources in their own campaigns.

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

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 believe both parties are sending the wrong kind of people to Washington, D.C.

Democracy, if it meant what our forefathers said, that would be great, but unfortunately it's been corrupted by this funding and funding of campaigns. There's a much better way to do it. There could be a small amount of money given by every taxpayer to be dedicated to candidates.