{"id":111941,"date":"2015-06-08T14:55:14","date_gmt":"2015-06-08T20:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bennet-embarks-on-mission-to-curb-election-spending\/"},"modified":"2015-06-08T14:55:14","modified_gmt":"2015-06-08T20:55:14","slug":"bennet-embarks-on-mission-to-curb-election-spending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bennet-embarks-on-mission-to-curb-election-spending\/","title":{"rendered":"Bennet embarks on mission to curb election spending"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., right, made a stop last month in Durango with fellow Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo. Bennet is pushing for major campaign finance reform in Washington, D.C. \u201cThe unlimited, unchecked and anonymous spending has paralyzed Congress,\u201d Bennet said.<\/span>Steve Lewis\/Durango Herald file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet is on a mission to limit campaign contributions, make them more transparent and reduce the incentive for lawmakers to be influenced by those contributions.<\/p>\n

Such a quest might seem odd from the Colorado Democrat, who served as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, in a role that required heavy fundraising.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy short time in the Senate and at the DSCC has reinforced my belief that Washington is broken, and our corroding campaign finance system is one of the root causes,\u201d Bennet said.<\/p>\n

Likely facing an expensive Senate race, Bennet has raised more than $2 million in the first quarter of the year.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, he introduced a bill that would ban members of Congress from soliciting lobbyists for campaign contributions while the body is in session. He has worked on reforming the nation\u2019s campaign finance system since 2010, when he was first elected. The measures rarely made it to the floor for a vote. But as Bennet pointed out, inaction is responsible for the public\u2019s all-time low approval rating of Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe unlimited, unchecked and anonymous spending has paralyzed Congress,\u201d he said. \u201cIt has been unable to tackle the big issues, whether it is reforming the tax code, updating our energy policy or fixing our immigration system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennet joined Congress via an appointment in 2009. In his 2010 race to keep his seat, 5 percent of his campaign was self-financed. Opponent Ken Buck didn\u2019t come close to matching his fundraising.<\/p>\n

With the 2010 Citizens United decision, political action committees are allowed to accept unlimited contributions from corporations and unions. In 2010, Super PACs raised more than $89 million to spend supporting or opposing candidates. In 2014, that number exceeded $696 million, according to the Sunlight Foundation.<\/p>\n

Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist for Washington-based consumer-rights think tank Public Citizen, said more than $10 billion could be spent on the 2016 presidential and congressional races.<\/p>\n

\u201cCitizens United has wreaked havoc on Capitol Hill and the integrity of the legislative process,\u201d Holman said. \u201cMembers are expected to spend 50 percent of their time if not more on fundraising. It\u2019s the Wild West out here; money means everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennet knows of the strains of fundraising. Those close to him say it was difficult for the senator to balance legislative work and his duties at the helm of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. His role as chairman of the DSCC also required him to drive members of his party to increase their fundraising efforts. Lawmakers often are encouraged to spend at least four hours per day fundraising.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the height of it, there were days where he was up and on the floor at 8 a.m. and going \u2019till 9 o\u2019clock at night,\u201d said Adam Bozzi, a Bennet spokesman, who has been with the office since the senator\u2019s appointment. \u201cIt\u2019s hectic; it\u2019s really hectic. It\u2019s a lot of travel; it\u2019s a lot of work. We just had to find ways to balance his legislative work, his DSCC role and time with his family. He was glad when it was over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nick Penniman, executive director of Issue One, which focuses solely on campaign finance reform, said lawmakers have lost their focus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey spend most of their time talking to wealthy individuals, most of whom are not even in their district. It\u2019s a huge distraction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Data from the Center for Responsive Politics shows that most of Bennet\u2019s financial support has come from New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. Bozzi said Bennet is focused now on his own campaign. He added that like all members, the senator still spends dozens of hours per week fundraising.<\/p>\n

No high-profile Republican has yet emerged to challenge Bennet in 2016, though state Sen. Ellen Roberts of Durango said she is considering a run. Bennet\u2019s seat is seen as one of the most vulnerable, and the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee already has launched attacks against him.<\/p>\n

Bozzi said the drain of the fundraising itself is not the main reason for Bennet\u2019s push for campaign finance reform.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the impact on governance that\u2019s really affected him. Coming to an agreement to avoid the cliff seemed like an opportunity to break through the paralysis in Congress, but it didn\u2019t happen,\u201d Bozzi said, referring to the universally unpopular 2013 automatic federal spending cuts.<\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, is skeptical of laws limiting campaign contributions. But his office indicated that he might support measures calling for disclosures of donors.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongressman Tipton will be looking to ensure that those measures are consistent with the constitution, maintain freedom of speech, encourage civic discourse and enhance transparency,\u201d said Josh Green, a Tipton spokesman.<\/p>\n

mbaksh@durangoherald.com<\/a>. Mariam Baksh is a student at American University in Washington, D.C., and an intern for The Cortez Journal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senator seeks to limit contributions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":111942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[3843,13,25],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-111941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-campaign-finance-reform","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-u-s-sen-michael-bennet"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111941"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=111941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}