Press Conference with Senator Dick Durbin, Senator Arlen Specter, Rep. John Larson, Rep. Walter Jones, Rep. Chellie Pingree

Press Conference

PRESS CONFERENCE WITH SENATOR DICK DURBIN (D-IL); SENATOR ARLEN SPECTER (R-PA); REP. JOHN LARSON (D-CT); REP. WALTER JONES (R-NC); AND REP. CHELLIE PINGREE (D-ME)

SUBJECT: FAIR ELECTIONS NOW ACT

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REP. PINGREE: Well, thank you very much. I am honored to be here with my distinguished and far more experienced colleagues. And I thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to stand here with all of you.

I have some prepared remarks. But most of these things have already been said. I'm happy to hand them out to any of you who would be interested. And we'll post them on our website. But let me just share two quick stories, to let you know how excited I am to actually be a member of Congress and to be standing here today, as this bill is put forward and introduced.

As you heard, Maine has been a pioneer in this legislation. Since 2000, we have a system called Clean Elections. I served in the state legislature. I was part of the fight to make sure we won this, up through the courts. And I had the great privilege over time not of actually running under this myself.

But when I first ran for federal office and first did all the things that we're talking about today, got in there, dialed for dollars, called people all over the country who knew me, who didn't know me, who had never heard of me, and said, hey, can you put some money in my campaign? I'm running for national office. I need your help.

There I was in a little white room, like everybody is today, because it's the last day of the quarter, and trying to find a way to get to Washington. Well, at exactly the same moment, my daughter, who was 26 years of age, decided she would run for the state legislature. And we had just implemented Clean Elections.

So she went around and got the number of contributing -- the qualifying contributions that she needed. She got those people to sign up and say, yes, I want you to run for office. And then she didn't have to raise another dime.

She came under the system that we're modifying here for Congress today. And you know what she spent her time doing, in that campaign, while I was locked in a little white room? She went to grocery stores, to fish piers. She knocked on the doors of every person in that district that she wanted to represent.

She talked to everybody, not just somebody who could make a contribution, not just somebody who knew about the cocktail party. She got to talk to everybody in that district. And she won. And she went on to serve for four terms.

She's currently the youngest speaker of the House in the country, woman speaker of the House, second woman speaker of the House in Maine. And I couldn't be more proud of what she's been able to do, of the people she's been able to recruit, to run for office, young people, people from minority communities, people who never thought they would have a chance to represent the people who were their friends and neighbors.

But you know what? They can run today because they don't have to know a lot of people with a lot of money. They don't have to spend all their time, in a little white room, dialing for dollars. They don't have to think about what special interest is going to donate to their campaign.

And I want to tell you a story that my daughter Hannah said to me, when she had gotten elected to office and she served on the Appropriations Committee. And 80 percent of our state legislators in Maine now use this system; Republicans and Democrats.

And she said, you know, Mom, it was a great thing. I was sitting on the Appropriations Committee, watching people testify. And I never once had to think, did they write me a check or not?

She just had to say, was it a good idea? That's what people want of us. That's the way democracy should work. The way we do it now is no way to run a democracy.

I am proud to be a freshman member of this Congress, many of us who ran on reform, who said that we didn't want our earmark request to be tied to some contribution, who said that we didn't want to spend all of our time, in little white rooms, talking to those special interests that come before our committee or don't.

We are so proud to stand up here today and say, it's about time we change our democracy. I'm honored to have these much more experienced members saying, just like I am, we've got to do something differently.

I'm honored to come from Maine, where we have proven that this is a model that can work for both parties. And I look forward to seeing this bill, not only before a committee but for final passage, before the Congress, and on the president's desk.

So thank you very much for including me.

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