I'm writing to express my frustration and disappointment in Melissa Hart of Pennsylvania's 4th District for failing to keep her pre-election pledges regarding campaign finance reform. All the big talk of how she wanted our corrupt form of electing officials reformed has gone down the drain. She has replaced it with rhetoric and half-measures that will never come close to cleaning up our current system of "If you have a pocket full of money, you can buy a politician as well as policy."
Ms. Hart has backed down on her original commitment because she fears retribution from House Speaker Dennis Hastert. Hastert and most other members of Congress fear that if true campaign finance reform laws are passed, hundreds of millions of dollars will not end up in their pockets by election time. They fear that if they are to be elected, it would have to be the old-fashioned, democratic and fair way in which every voter who goes to the polls will have his vote counted. As it is now, money and the highest bidder do the selecting.
Hart's implication to 4th District voters as well as to Sen. John McCain, who campaigned for her, was that reform in campaign finance laws was desperately needed in order to hold up the pillars of our democracy. Hart deceived Pennsylvania voters and used McCain, who is constantly out on a lonely limb for the American people, trying to enforce the ideals of democracy.
Please join me in encouraging Hart to sign the Discharge Petition and to allow an up or down vote on campaign finance reform, the House Shays-Meehan bill. It will be a beginning for every American to feel as though his vote counts.
