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Topic: Presidential Election Campaign Fund
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alicia
Administrator
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Presidential Election Campaign Fund |
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Posted on: 04/13/05 - 08:11:25 |
Letter to the Editor printed in the Herald-Citizen newspaper in Cookeville, TN on 04/10/05:
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I want to highlight one of those blanks on your federal tax return. It’s the blank that simply asks if you wish to donate $3 to the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. The instructions say that the fund “places candidates on an equal financial footing in the general election.”
That is an outright lie! The truth is that it is a system designed to discriminate against political minorities. Democrats and Republicans use this fund to take tax money and give themselves a financial advantage over third-party competition. Here’s how it works:
1) During the primaries, candidates who raise $5,000 in each of 20 states receive donation matches from the fund.
2) If a party’s candidate in the previous election got 5% of the vote, the fund will contribute to that party’s nominating convention. In 2004, Democrats and Republicans EACH received $14.9 million of taxpayer money for their conventions.
3) If a party qualified under rule #2, that party’s nominee can receive a campaign grant. In 2004, George Bush and John Kerry EACH received $74 million of taxpayer money for their campaigns.
See the pattern? This system discriminates against newcomers or minorities to make sure only Democrats and Republicans qualify for most of the money.
I’m Libertarian. Libertarians don’t believe your tax money should fund anyone’s campaign. Our candidates have refused the primary donation matching funds when they qualified for them. Our party funds its own conventions and candidates with voluntary donations.
Do we want fair competition in elections as well as in the free market? Do third-party candidates have the civil right to receive equal treatment when they run for office?
Some politicians believe that fairness, equal opportunity, and competition should be the standards for everyone else, but not for themselves. So when your pen hovers over that checkbox, if you want to help stamp out discrimination against minorities, just say “No”.
Alicia Mattson
Cookeville, TN
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KDBerry
Level 1
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Re: Presidential Election Campaign Fund |
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Posted on: 04/24/05 - 17:54:24 |
This is an excellent example of a succinct, well-worded letter that can be understood by the average voter. Letters such as this need to become the rule rather than the exception in local papers across this state. Only when the common voter senses a ground-swell of support for the Libertarian cause will they leave their "Friends" reruns to investigate.
Bravo!
KenB.
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Ken D. Berry
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