According to this story, Michael Grimm, who was just re-elected to Congress from New York city last month, will resign this week. He is the only Republican member of the U.S. House from New York city. A special election will be needed.
According to this story, Michael Grimm, who was just re-elected to Congress from New York city last month, will resign this week. He is the only Republican member of the U.S. House from New York city. A special election will be needed.
Just more proof that there is not a dime’s worth of difference between the establishment parties. Grim news indeed: “In a document submitted to the court, he admitted to all the illegal conduct alleged in his 20-count indictment, including hiring undocumented immigrants and lying under oath in a deposition in 2013, when he had been in Congress for two years.”
Also proof that being under indictment is no concern to voters given his overwhelming re-election.
At some point we have to look to the voters for the sorry state of gov’t. They have choices. They can create choices. Heck another Republican could have primaried him even if the voters wanted to stick with a more honest version of the same ideology.
Candidate and incumbent rank order lists for replacements.
NO more low voter turnout very expensive special elections.
Jeff Beck and GreenGenes both underscore that our political system is rotten to the core. The money factor is the root cause of this cancer, and it has to be taken out of the entire equation, then hopefully, candidates will run for office only because they genuinely love their communities want to serve their constituency. In fact, there should be no other motivating factor in determining whether one is to be a candidate or not.
I hate to have to keep repeating myself, but all candidates, regardless of party affiliation or the lack thereof should get on the ballot only by paying a modest filing fee of no more than 5% of the annual salary of the office. This will put an end to the challenging of petitions and sabotaging the effort of simply attempting to qualify. Any serious candidate – with the help of family, friends and supporters can meet a filing fee threshold.
Once on the ballot, only a federally controlled, political campaign financing scheme fueled only by tax papers dollars will be utilized to pay the xxx dollars for necessary advertising and candidacy activities. The determinants of such disbursements shall be made depending on the geographical size of the state and the office being sought. Any efforts to circumvent these limitations will be met with serious prison time including the candidates who knowingly participates with any “hidden” and “under the table” financing methods. All candidates will be allowed to take part in any public Debates, and the Media – both printed and electronic – will provide a predetermined allotment of advertisement for the candidates, the cost of which is to be reimbursed by the federal financing scheme.
Term limits must be set for all offices from the Courthouse to the White house. Still a patriotic citizen may be successful in serving long enough and in a sufficient number of offices to sustain a modest life style and boast of an honorable career, along with a deserved but reasonable pension guaranteed for such service. Still, it must be the sole objective that politicians shall not be able to manipulate the system for the achievement of massive wealth for himself or herself and their friends.
Such a campaign financing system may not be the “American way,” but as long as greed tends to motivate a number of office seekers as well as a number of campaign supporters, the system will have to be subject to the concept that human nature must always be guarded against the possibility of abuse. An office holder’s public tax returns and any private investments made while in or immediately after leaving office must be forensically examined to guarantee that any ill-gotten fruits were not as a result of the citizen holding the office.
Until mankind becomes perfect, there is no other way of proving a fair and honest electoral system for the American people. If we want honest and fair elections as well as honest and fair public officials, the preceding scenario is the only way to guarantee such.