MoveOn Announces New Election Year Push: Fight Washington Corruption

Anti-Corporate Corruption Campaign Launches With More Than 158 Rallies Nationwide, A Pledge Signed By 29 Candidates, and New Battleground Polling

MoveOn.org Political Action, a group with more than 5 million members, launched a new election year push today to Fight Washington Corruption and to elect politicians who will fight for the Other 98% of Americans, not just the 2% who can afford to hire corporate lobbyists and buy elections. Recent battleground polling shows that 79% of likely voters think it is important that candidates for Congress commit to reducing the electoral influence of corporations.

The first part of MoveOn’s multi-prong election effort launched today with more than 158 rallies in 41 states urging politicians to sign the “Fight Washington Corruption Pledge.” So far, 29 candidates, including incumbents like Senator Barbara Mikulski (MD), and Alan Grayson (FL-8), and key battleground candidates like Jack Conway (KY), Lee Fisher (OH), Paul Hodes (NH), Andrew Romanoff (CO), Alexi Giannoulias (IL), Roxanne Conlin (IA), Manan Trivedi (PA-6) and Mac D’Allesandro (MA-9) have signed the pledge.

The pledge calls for candidates to publicly support specific solutions to eliminate the culture of corruption in Washington: overturning Citizens United, passing the Fair Elections Act, and reducing the influence of corporate lobbyists in Washington, DC. All three of these solutions proved very popular in the battleground poll being released today.

You can see more information about the pledge here: http://fightwashingtoncorruption.com/facts/
You can see the politicians who have signed here: http://fightwashingtoncorruption.com/candidates.html

MoveOn also released new Survey USA polling today that shows these are winning issues for Democrats because they resonate with key swing voters and motivate the base.

You can see a summary memo of the polling here: http://pol.moveon.org/fwc/battlegroundpolladvisory.pdf
You can see the full polling results here: http://www.voterrollcall.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=ce694372-aa8e-48c2-83c1-e093151c0906
The polling, done in twenty-two battleground House and Senate races, shows that:
· 89% of likely voters believe that it is important that a candidate commits to reducing the influence lobbyists have over the way laws are written, with 68% believing such a commitment is very important.

· Among Republicans, the numbers are 87% and 63%, respectively; among Independents, 89% and 68%.

· And 57% of voters, including 54% of Independents, agree that making the economy work for ordinary Americans requires taking on corporate lobbyists, with only 22% of voters (and 24% of Independents) disagreeing.


The pledge is part of a broader campaign, titled the Other 98%, that will work this fall to elect leaders who will fight for the majority of Americans and not just the top 2%. This will be MoveOn’s major push this election cycle. Joining MoveOn in this campaign are partners SEIU, Democracy for America, Friends of the Earth, Common Cause, Color of Change, CREDO, Public Campaign, Progressive Campaign Change Committee, The Nation, True Majority, People for the America Way, and Public Citizen.

For more on the campaign, please visit: http://fightwashingtoncorruption.com

This is an issue that not only is taking off with voters, but with politicians too. Congressman John Lewis, in expressing support for the pledge, noted that from the long fight leading up to the Voting Rights Act of August 1965 to today, the cause of his career has been to promote equality of rights within the political process.

“Today we face another threat to our democracy, the unbridled influence of money, particularly corporate money, on our political process. I join you in your fight to break these ties.”

To see John Lewis’ full letter, please visit: http://fightwashingtoncorruption.com/replewis.html

“Our members worked for change in 2006 and 2008, and have realized that the primary obstacle to achieving the change we urgently need is the overwhelming influence that corporations have enjoyed in Washington for decades” said Justin Ruben, Executive Director of MoveOn.org. “Corporations are not people, corporate money is not free speech and democracy will only work for the Other 98% of Americans when everyone has an equal voice.”