Jane Mayer Quotes

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

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.

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

Raising campaign money from Washington PACs is much easier than from individuals because its a business relationship.

Wealthy individuals have always had the capacity to influence politics, of course, but only after two key campaign finance cases - Wisconsin Right to Life and and Citizens United, have they been able to do it in such a large and blatant way.

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

I recognize that individuals and organizations with tremendous financial clout and open access to the political system in the post-Citizens United era, are going to fight tooth and nail against a reinvigorated War on Poverty. But I also think that the elections of 2012 showed the limits of big money in politics, and the willingness of a majority of voters to really think these issues through for themselves.

It takes money to run political campaigns. This is a cancer growing on the soul of our democracy.

Politics has become unbelievably and unfortunately way too much about how much money is involved rather than what kind of ideas are involved.

In the old days, money controlled politics. Today, information controls politics. So I think with the advent of the Internet, the power of wealth has been diminished. Look up all the people you know who spent millions and millions of dollars and fell short.

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.

The appalling reality in American politics today is that, when ideology and money mix, truth is a mere inconvenience.

Who is in charge? Is it taxpayers or is it the special interest groups?

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.

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

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.

I have the most reliable friend you can have in American politics, and that is ready money.

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

Money has too big an influence on our politics in Washington and somehow we need to do something about that.

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

There are a lot of grotesqueries in politics, not the least of which is the fund-raising side.

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.

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

But they are not going to take on Big Oil because Big Oil is very generous at campaign time, and this is all about the elections. They want to pretend that they are doing something meaningful.

Well, I think the great tragedy in American politics is what is legal, not what is illegal.