Whipping up for Public Financing

Senators Durbin and Specter officially introduced this week that would publically finance congressional elections (small dollar donations allowed, which would be matched 4 to 1).

When folks realize that politicians were begging AIG execs for big-dollar cash at the same they were supposed to regulate them, they get pretty pissed off.

Yesterday, an organization called Change Congress launched a new tool to help citizens “whip” the vote for this bill by calling Congress. It was designed by some Google employees who volunteered, and it’s pretty neat.

Lawrence Lessig blogged about it on Huffington Post. So here is what you do. If you want public financing. If you really want to end corporate greed in our government, then call our wonderous congressional delegation at the numbers below:

Sen. Tom Carper: 202-224-2441
Sen. Ted Kaufman: 202-224-5042
Rep. Michael Castle: 202-225-4165

And this is what you say, if you are so inclined:

“I’m calling to support the Fair Elections Now Act (bill S. 752 in the Senate), which would result in major campaign finance reform for congressional elections. It would replace a system of special-interest funded elections with a new system of public funding plus small-dollar donations.”

“This bipartisan bill was just introduced in the Senate by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and in the House by Reps. John Larson (D-Conn.) and Walter Jones (R-N.C.)”

“As a constituent of [Castle, Carper or Kaufman], I strongly support this bill.”

“In fact, I joined the Change Congress donor strike pledging not to give a penny more to any member of Congress unless they support this bill.”