"... candidates who aren't beholden to donors ... Republican voters are ready for a real transformation that would make that true of ALL candidates."

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COMMENTS: 
*  Congress could certainly pass legislation which would totally reform campaign spending, but no member of Congress seems willing to even write such legislation, let alone sponsor or carry such legislation.
*  We need to have a culture of citizen politicians not politician lawyers!
*  This will not happen. The idea is OK for a primitive country as was the US in the late 18th century, but cannot work now. What can work is prohibiting PACS, Corporations and wealthy donors from buying those running for office. Have a $100 limit for individual contributors period. Matching funds for those donated and no other money coming in. Candidates not allowed to run political add more than 60 days before an election or after a nominating convention, whichever is a shorter time frame. Direct popular elections with no electoral college (as outdated as citizen politicians). Centralized voter registration across the US so no more GOP disenfranchisement allowed. All members of Congress pay into Social Security and medicare and do not have a special pension or medical program other than any person would have.
*  Well they won't get any of those things with a republican in office..  We need to end the days of the bought and paid for politicians period..
*  ... this is an important issue - the main reason why our politicians can't do the work of the people. They are too busy doing the work that they were "bribed" to do - they owe their donors......
*   ... you dont hear any politcian talking about important things at all, its the same bullShit year after year, abortion, gay marriage, now it is religioous freedom, all a smoke screen so they dotn have to talk about the important things
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Republican Voters Want These Four Surprising Things
By Zephyr Teachout, September 28, 2015

A presidential poll released as Speaker Boehner made his announcement shows Republicans want something no Republican candidate is talking about

Last week, we -- MAYDAY.US -- ran a poll of the supporters of Presidential candidates to find out where they stood on big, fundamental contentious issues around money in politics. We wanted to know whether there was a big difference between, say, Clinton supporters and Sanders supporters on public financing of elections. We wanted to know whether Rubio and Bush supporters had different takes on whether the SEC should require companies to disclose political spending. And we wanted to see if we could go find those supporters who cared about a total overhaul, and work with them.

I went in with certain assumptions. I assumed that because no major Republican candidates are talking about public financing of elections, we'd see low support for public financing and fundamental reform. Not because I think public financing is a partisan issue -- it's not -- it's a brainchild of the Republican Teddy Roosevelt, and whatever your politics, you should want a system built for democracy, not oligarchy! But national Republican leaders have been weak and absent on the issue, talking vaguely about reform and corruption but silent on how to do anything meaningful about it.

But here's what we learned: Supporters of Republican presidential candidates want to see fundamental structural change in how we fund elections as badly as Democrats do.

I talk a lot about how this is a bipartisan issue, but consider that 94% of Republican voters said that "special interest money has too much influence in American political campaigns," and 81% agreed that "the system for funding elections needs fundamental reform."

In particular, we learned Republican voters want these four surprising things:

1. 85% of Republicans polled believe elections would be "less corrupt" if politicians focused more on small donors instead of special interests to raise money. This includes: 91% of Huckabee supporters, 86% of Fiorina supporters.
2. A majority of Republicans supported a system of citizen-funded elections, where individuals can make "small contributions that are then matched by a limited amount of public funds." This is without Republican candidates talking about it, and without the broad cultural understanding of a new system.
3. 92% of Republicans think the FEC should be reformed so that it holds accountable those who break election law.
4. 88% of Republicans believe the Securities and Exchange Commission should force corporations to disclose their political spending.

Public financing of elections, SEC action and FEC enforcement, taken together, is bigger than reform. It's a structured political revolution. It transfers power. What these polls show is that Republicans want that structured political revolution, even though their leaders aren't talking about it.

This means a majority of Bush and Trump voters would be happy if they came out and supported a new, opt-in system of citizen funded elections. The poll demonstrates to Republican candidates that a majority of their voters believe the system is rigged, and more importantly, they want politicians to act.

I'm not naive. The real reason most candidates don't publicly support public financing of elections is because it is such a fundamental change in power that their big donors (and super PAC sponsors) don't want it, and because they are scared that they'd get more grassroots challengers if there's no big money filter deciding who gets to run.

But I will tell you, if those poll numbers start getting backed by bird-dogging numbers, and phone calls, and protesters, those candidates are going to stop blowing off basic democracy questions and start coming up with answers.

Remember Eric Cantor's defeat last year? Ironically, Dave Brat, who beat him, and I, were talking about a lot of the same things during our campaigns -- crony capitalism and crony politics -- and he's evidence that there's a rising anti-corruption force in the Republican electorate that isn't going to accept the usual pablum.

Republican strategist John Pudner, who had a leading hand in Brat's victory, is pushing for a public financing bill, one that allows voters to use the first $100 of their tax money to go to their favorite candidates who choose to participate in the new, citizen-funded system.

Public financing already has 153 co-sponsors of both parties in the House. The Government by the People Act (H.R.20) would create a national version of New York City-style public financing, amplifying the voices of voters by matching small donations using a limited amount of public funds. There is only one Republican co-sponsor right now -- Representative Walter Jones of North Carolina -- but these polls show all Republicans that there is a base of support waiting to be tapped.

Many people have argued that Trump draws some of his support from voters who want candidates who aren't beholden to donors -- but what this poll shows is that Republican voters are ready for a real transformation that would make that true of ALL candidates.
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