Who Does Senator Dodd Represent? What about Your Congressperson?

The answers are glaringly clear: Not the residents fo Connecticut and not you.

According to the Connecticut Post, Sen. Dodd

"The five-term incumbent reported raising just $4,250 from five Connecticut residents during the first three months of the year while raking in $604,745 from nearly 400 individuals living outside the state."

His campaign funding machine has brought in an astounding amount from people and others who are not eligible to vote for him.

Now why would I, a Florida resident and voter, care about Mr. Dodd's campaign shenanigans? I care because this seems to be typical of politicians in this country. In the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac failure, we learn that Mr. Dodd, then Senator Obama, Senator Schumer and many other US Congresspersons who blocked any attempts to reign them in were in receipt of hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds. Mr. Dodd received special favors from Countrywide, a mortgage company that was making risky loans and sloughing off the "securities" to Fannie and Freddie.

This is a wakeup call to American voters.

Also, this exactly exemplifies why I started a blog named "Move it Right". In this case it means the right way to fund political campaigns. The right way to fund politics is to ensure that only people who are eligible to vote for a candidate can donate to their campaign.

This would exclude:

Corporate lobbyists: Corporations cannot vote.

Residents of other states and districts: a voter in Florida cannot vote for a candidate in Connecticut. A voter in Manatee County cannot vote for a state senator or representative in Broward County.

PAC's & unions: Only individuals can vote.

The Chinese: Definitely non-residents (recall Charlie Tree and others?)

The elected officials in American government do not represent the voters of their districts and states. They represent those people and organizations that are more able to hand over large amounts of cash. I recommended this to Senator McCain when McCain/Feingold was all the rage. But my suggestion went unanswered.

With the grassroots response that derailed the so-called immigration reform and the current Tea Parties demonstrate that the government can be taken back by the people.

The Tea Party protests are an excellent start. Next, voters will need to to change the FEC rules to exclude funds from non-eligible sources.