| Congressman Eric Massa has faced some attacks over the last week for his willingness to accept corporate contributions after not accepting them in his previous two runs for Congress, including the 2008 campaign that he won. Massa argues, and perhaps rightfully so, that he doesn't want to put the whole bill on the taxpayers of his district.
But Massa has faced attacks from the NRCC and the media, who sees Massa's actions as hypocritical. Of course, the media's coverage of this is hypocritical.
Today, Congressman Massa wrote an op-ed in the Democrat and Chronicle that slams the D & C's coverage of his change of heart.
They did not want to write about the four years that I ran for Congress without taking a single penny from corporate special interests.
I don't know of any other members of Congress who did this. They never weighed in on the challenge involved in winning a fight with one hand tied behind my back. They never weighed in on the fact that I have always supported Clean Money/Clean Election reforms to eliminate high-dollar contributions from elections.
We are in the worst recession since the Great Depression. Last month, 598,000 Americans lost their jobs, but the Democrat and Chronicle would rather focus on taking shots at me without presenting a balanced or thoughtful approach to the real issues facing Americans.
Of course, these same media outlets will never write editorials in support of a measure that will erase the need for any candidates, including Massa, to accept high-dollar donations and to turn to wealthy contributors for money. Instead of slamming Massa, the D & C and other media outlets should be slamming the system, while also writing in support of clean money, clean elections.
Clean Money/Clean Elections (CMCE) would create a system that would publicly finance elections. Publicly funded elections would create a level playing field and would eliminate the need to turn to high-dollar donors, corporations and PACs to fund campaigns.
Congressman Eric Massa is a supporter of CMCE, but that has been ignored in these attacks. The NRCC attacks Massa, yet they have always accepted corporate contributions and their own candidates they peddle out to the public accept corporate contributions. If the NRCC has a problem with corporate contributions, they should look at themselves. They are part of the problem, not the solution.
The Republicans and the media can attack Massa, but that will do nothing to address a problem that many candidates face. It is a nice talking point during an election to say that your opponent accepts money from corporations. But if you aren't doing anything about corporations giving money to candidates, then you are also part of the problem.
It is time we have a real debate on this issue and force our state and federal government to change the ways campaign finance impacts elections. The attacks on Massa should be what ignites a serious debate about these reforms and what we should do going forward. |
