Letter to the Editor: "Repeal the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision"

(The following Letter to the Editor has been submitted by Ketel Paulson of Decorah):

We need money out of politics.  Period.  We can't have a true democracy if money buys the elections from our national legislators.  In 19 out of 20 federal elections the person who raised the most money for their election wins.  It doesn't matter what they believed in one bit.

Our Senators and Congresspersons are not interested yet in taking money out of politics.  They are held to account mostly by those who paid with donations to get them into office.  They are not accountable to you or me or there would have been bi-partisan efforts on broad topics to move this country forward. 

There is an effort crossing this country now to upend the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision which broke down most campaign contribution spending limits from donors of all types.  We can get money out of politics only by getting two-thirds of our state legislatures to pass an amendment, the future 28th Amendment.  The Constitutional Convention would establish a new amendment to the constitution that states that money is not speech and corporations are not people. It's that simple, and it's something almost all Americans agree upon, regardless of party affiliation.  We need elections that are free from the corrupting influence of money and fair enough so that any citizen can run for office.

The language of the resolution that will be introduced can be found on-line at www.Wolf-PAC.com under 'toolbox.'

This effort has passed state houses in Vermont, California and just recently in Illinois.  We can be next.  Our group has  legislators willing to introduce this historic legislation.  We just need to encourage our elected officials to do the same thing.

Please call your Iowa legislators, and tell them you want money out of politics, too:

State Senator Michael Breitbach  (515) 281-3371
State Representative Darrel Branhagen    ( 515) 281-3221