Rachel Lambert Mellon Quotes

The first thing you need to run for President is a budget of around $20 million dollars a day.

In constant pursuit of money to finance campaigns, the political system is simply unable to function. Its deliberative powers are paralyzed.

So I think that if we want to have a Congress, if we want to have government that looks like America, if we want to have government that is truly a representative Democracy, then we need to clearly address how we get our campaign laws out of the way of Democracy.

And, you know, money is - the money edge is really dangerous to democracy. Because what you have right now - people have said to me that, look, you'll always be outspent, so how can you ever win?

If candidates spend money on ads and other political speech and their opponents are rewarded with government handouts to attack them, that chills speech and is unconstitutional. Non-participating candidates certainly don't volunteer to allow their opponents to receive taxpayer subsidies to bash them.

Citibank had nothing to do with getting reelected.

People confuse compassion with government being compassionate with other people's money versus people being compassionate with their own money.

There were 14,000 people at the rally for the president in Ohio. There were another 8,000 people in Virginia. If all 22,000 of those people opened their wallets and gave $1,000 each, that would be less than one donation from a billionaire to the super PACs. And that's why he's in for the fight of his life.

Well, paycheck protection is an important ingredient for a successful campaign finance reform measure.

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

I don't believe you can find any evidence of the fact that I have changed government policy solely because of a contribution.

I am not liked as a president by the politicians in office, in the press, or in Congress. But I am content to abide the judgment–the sober second thought–of the people

So long as politicians need millions to win a seat in Congress and nearly a billion to contest the White House, they will sanctify the methods needed to raise such sums.

If you aren't willing to use your own money [for campaigning], you ought to think about something else.

If the friends of the candidate choose to go to expense for committees and canvassing [campaigning] there are no means of preventing them; but such expenses out of the candidate’s own pocket, or any expenses whatever beyond the deposit of £50 (or £100), should be illegal and punishable.

Those villainous reporters [Stephen] Douglas has with him.

Hostility is the natural state of affairs between the White House and the Media

I don’t care what the newspapers write about me. My constituents can’t even read. But get rid of those damn pictures [political cartoons]

I formed a great desire to help you be president of the United States. It has seemed to me that if I could perform some service for you that would land you in the Presidency I could perform as great a service for my country as I could perform on the battlefield.

Public campaign financing isn't perfect and can doubtlessly be improved upon as we go.

Campaigns are so much more expensive than people think they are. Just to keep the lights on is several thousand dollars a month.

Running on corporate-PAC money is a huge liability.

I'm not backed by the super PACs and the big corporations.

That hasn't been easy, because in order to run a clean and transparent race, I announced in January I was not going to accept any corporate PAC money.

Back in 1998, he [Tom Hanks] gave the maximum amount of money that he could to Bill Clinton's defense fund. This is a man who was against gay marriage, as was Hillary Clinton.