Editor:
Elections belong to all of us We, the People and we should control how theyre conducted. Third-party political advertising by unknown supporters is increasing and its overwhelmingly negative. People of all political views are rightfully concerned about the ability of mystery individuals, corporations, and unions to buy our elections. But can we do anything about it?
In Massachusetts, U.S. Senator Scott Brown and challenger Elizabeth Warren have signed an agreement they call the Peoples Pledge. If either candidate benefits from a third-party ad, they must pay a penalty to a charity chosen by their opponent. This is an agreement between the candidates, not a law or regulation. The result has been a tremendous decline in outside negative advertising.
Its pretty certain that the U.S. House race between U.S. Representative Scott Tipton and Colorado Representative Sal Pace, will see negative outside ads in fact, theyve already started.
You can help by signing an online petition at change.com, asking the candidates to create a similar agreement for their race. The Tipton/Pace petition is at http://tinyurl.com/839j53f . Sign and then call and email the campaign offices and ask that they help reverse the decline of civility and fair play in our political campaigns.
Gary Skiba
Durango
Via CortezJournal.com