In the seven and a half years since the United States Supreme Court struck down Vermont’s restrictive political fundraising rules, lawmakers have struggled in vain to replace them.
But on Thursday afternoon, after just 25 minutes of debate, the House voted overwhelmingly in favor of a campaign finance compromise hammered out over the legislative off-season by House and Senate negotiators.
The vote was 124-15.
If passed by the Senate next week and signed by Gov. Peter Shumlin, the legislation would double to $4,000 the amount statewide candidates could raise from a single person or corporation. And it would quintuple to $10,000 the amount political parties could raise from the same sources.
Candidates for the House and Senate, both of whom can currently raise $2,000 from such entities, would be restricted to donations of $1,000 and $1,500 respectively. (See this week’s Fair Game for more on the bill.)
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Two Party politics… squeeze out the independents, because (gasp) anyone who doesn’t agree entirely with one party or the other can’t possibly be a good legislator
Greedy little shits.
lets hope the senate rejects this, yeah right