We were ecstatic when we heard from Congressman Doggett’s office that he would be signing on as an original cosponsor of the Fair Elections Now Act, a bill which would create a public financing system for Congressional candidates. 
Public financing means that instead of spending hours a day raising money on the phone, our elected leaders can instead take money allocated to them by the government for their campaigns. No longer would any constituent have to worry that their leaders could be “bought” by their campaign donations, and no campaign donor could ever try to attach any strings, real or implied, to their donations.
Public Citizen has long been an advocate for getting money out of Washington. This is the biggest and best step we can take to make this happen.
Congressman Doggett is a leader on this issue, and will hopefully bring more attention to this issue as it moves along. We’d like to thank him, and hope you will as well, by calling his Austin office 512-916-5921 or by writing a letter to the editor of the Austin American Statesman or your other local paper (I’m looking at you, Hays County — he’s your Rep too!)
We’re all incredibly lucky to have a Representative like Congressman Doggett. He is joined in support of Fair Elections Now by Rep. Gene Green of Houston. Silvestre Reyes of El Paso is also on the record for supporting public financing, but has not yet signed on to the bill.
Earlier this week, Governor Perry announced that he would, in fact, call back legislators for an extended special session. What exactly this session will cover (voter ID? please no!) remains unclear, but the Governor has committed to addressing the “sunset safety net” bill that was left on the table.
