Change Congress
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Change Congress | |
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| Formation | 2008 |
| Website | www.Change-Congress.org |
Change Congress is a national movement that aims to end corruption in the United States Congress by reducing the distorted influence of money in Washington. Founded by Lawrence Lessig and Joe Trippi, Change Congress organizes citizens to push candidates to make commitments on the following issues: take no money from lobbyists or PACs, vote to end earmarks, support publicly-financed campaigns, and support reform to increase congressional transparency.
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[edit] History
Change Congress was officially launched [1] on March 20, 2008 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. when Lessig held a press conference [2] sponsored by the Sunlight Foundation.
Lessig had considered a run for Congress in 2008, but decided against it, electing instead to focus his attention on the Change Congress movement.[3]
Lessig organized Change Congress to operate in three phases: get candidates to embrace the reform platform; build a wiki-based map of reform candidates; and financially support the reformers. The first phase is similar to Lessig's alternative copyright strategy campaign, Creative Commons.[4] A major challenge to Lessig's campaign is getting candidates to accept the idea of a semi-limited public financing system for campaigns, whereby incumbents are not allowed to raise any private funds, and instead would receive a sum (in the form of public financing) that is slightly less than whatever money (public or private) that their challenger(s) are able to raise. According to Lessig, this system would not only make political campaigns more competitive, it would also take significant pressure off of incumbents, allowing them to focus more on issues and less on fundraising.[5]
Although there are certainly cases of extreme personal corruption in Congress relating to financial corruption (see Randy "Duke" Cunningham and Jack Abramoff) Lessig's main aim is what he sees as "institutional corruption" in Congress, whereby the influence of money has an uneven, distracting, and detrimental pull on the United States Congress.[6]
[edit] Pledge
Citizens are able to get a badge [7] that customizes which Change Congress causes they support. They are then given code so that they can place their pledge on their own website. Candidates are given the same choice.[8] Change Congress plans to compile an ongoing list of citizens and candidates, and which cause(s) they support.
[edit] Tracking candidates
Change Congress hopes to use volunteers to create a comprehensive list[9] of members of Congress and where they stand on issues of lobbyists, earmarks, public financing, and increased transparency in government.
[edit] Political donations
Change Congress also hopes to change citizens' campaign contribution habits by giving people the option[10] of only supporting candidates who pledge to honor some or all of Change Congress' pledge commitments.
[edit] Other Countries
Although there is considerable support from their Canadian neighbours to the north, there are no parallel movements in other countries that have gained the visibility achieved by Change Congress.
[edit] References
- ^ Newmark, Craig (2008-03-20). The "Change Congress Project" with Larry Lessig, Sunlight Foundation, and Omidyar Network. Huffington Post. Retrieved on 2008-03-20.
- ^ Change Congress Project Launch Video at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on March 20, 2008
- ^ Gross, Grant (2008-02-26). Lessig decides not to run for Congress. Washington Post. Retrieved on 2008-03-20.
- ^ Koman, Richard (2008-03-23). Change-Congress, an open source strategy for political reform. ZDNet. Retrieved on 2008-03-24.
- ^ McArdle, Megan (2008-03-21). Can Larry Lessig really change congress?. the Atlantic. Retrieved on 2008-03-24.
- ^ Baumann, Nick (2008-03-20). Lessig Launches "Change Congress" Reform Effort. Mother Jones. Retrieved on 2008-03-24.
- ^ Change Congress: Citizen Pledge
- ^ Change Congress: Candidate Pledge
- ^ Change Congress: Tracking Congress
- ^ Change Congress: Donations
