Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's proposal to give voters up to $600 in campaign donations in an effort to challenge corporate influence in politics could significantly boost economic, gender and racial diversity among donors, experts told Newsweek.
"With an estimated voting eligible population of about 250 million, it could account for many billions of dollars ," Kenneth Mayer, an expert on campaign finance reform at the University of Madison-Wisconsin, told Newsweek in an email."Participation wouldn't come anywhere close to 100 percent, but even if only a quarter [of] eligible voters participate, we are talking about enough money in a presidential race to replace all other forms of fundraising.
Pew Research data showed that 32 percent of those with family incomes of at least $150,000 made a political donation in the 2016 election cycle. In comparison, 7 percent of people from families making less than $30,000 donated. A Demos survey published in 2016 found that 91 percent of federal election donors in 2012, and 92 percent in 2014, were white. The study also found that men accounted for 63 percent of federal election donors and 65 percent of donors who contributed more than $5,000.
In a Medium post announcing her plan, Gillibrand said"political corruption" stood in the way of solving a range of supposedly intractable problems facing the country. The presidential candidate said her proposal would be funded by eliminating a"loophole that makes taxpayers subsidize excessively high CEO compensation: CEOs making 25 times the median salary of their employees or more than $1 million, whichever is less.
SenGillibrand Buy them votes!!
Business Business Latest News, Business Business Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: BusinessInsider - 🏆 729. / 51 Read more »