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Julie Oliver

Get corporations and big money out of Congress

We have to transform a system that is built to benefit billionaires and corporations at our expense.

American democracy is under attack. We have to get corporations and big money out of our elections and out of the halls of Congress.

Ever since the day Julie decided to put everything on the line and run for Congress, ending the public cancer of corruption in our political system has been a signature issue and, with universal healthcare, one of her absolute top priorities.

Many candidates claim to run corporate-PAC-free campaigns -- but very few can claim, like Julie can, to run campaigns that are truly 100% funded by individual contributions. To Julie, it is the only way that she feels that she can ensure that those she wants to represent and serve know that she is not in anyone’s pocket.

And Julie has always been a leader on this issue, running a campaign 100% funded by individual donations in 2018 that still raised more money than every Democrat that had run in this district before her combined - without PAC money, without pollsters, and consultants, just showing up, doing the work of knocking on doors and listening to people. Running her campaign in the most grassroots, fundamental, and true-hearted way she knew how was the only way Julie felt was right and truly honest.

That kind of person-to-person connection is the way democracy should work in this country - not slick TV ads, and not billionaires buying votes.

That's why Julie committed to open-to-the-public, once-a-month town hall meetings back home in the district, so that she is accountable to this community in Congress.

We have to get big money out of our elections, once and for all. Of the many crises we are facing in this country -- of gun violence, of a climate crisis driven by the fossil fuel industry, of mass incarceration, of the human rights violations we are seeing at the border, of endless war driven by the defense industry -- we could meaningfully address all of them by ending the corrupting influence of money in our politics.

Julie understands that corporations are not people, and while it’s critical that we reverse Citizens United, she plans to go further, with a signature bill -- the Tax the PACs Act, which would tax corporate PACs at a rate of 70 - 90%.

For organizations like the NRA or the Family Research Council, whose sole purpose is lobbying Congress for ideologically motivated gain, we should impose an onerous tax of 70 - 90% on 501(c)(3) organizations that engage in political activity or lobbying beyond a certain threshold of their spending or beyond what they claim is their charitable purpose.

Corporations engage in political activity to add to or protect their bottom lines, which arguably is an income-generating activity deserving of taxation. If Corporations want to fund political activities through PACs, Congress should tax the PACs – and tax them onerously to discourage the “investment” -- 70 - 90% on donations received by Corporate PACs.

You can trust Julie to take meaningful action to end the corrupting influence of money in our politics more than any other candidate because she is truly committed to accountability, radical transparency, and will always be 100% PAC-free.

Congress is supposed to represent people -- actual human beings with bills to pay, healthcare costs, and dreams to pursue. PACs, lobbies, corporations, special interests, joint committees who only care about the next election -- these are not people. Members of Congress should not be beholden to them.

The hyper-polarization and toxicity and dysfunction we're seeing is because corporations are able to buy outcomes. And the majority of the people in this country who don't have lobbyists or a PAC fighting for them loses out. If we can get big money out, if we can end gerrymandering and if we can stop the undue influence of outsize spending on our elections we will have an institution worthy of the people it's supposed to serve.

Julie is a proud signatory of the No Fossil Fuel Money pledge.

In Congress, Julie is committed to:

  • 1. Requiring that any 501(c) entity spending on *any* political activity that mentions a federal candidate or that's intended to influence an election to be disclosed, by supporting the DISCLOSE Act (H.R. 6239);

    2. Banning members of Congress from owning shares of individual stock;

    3. Filing the Tax the PACS Act, which would tax the political activities of 501(c) entities that spend beyond a certain threshold on political activities;

    4. Requiring that members of Congress who receive federal stimulus money for their personal business disclose the amounts to the American public;

    5. Opposing any and all attempts to repeal the Johnson Amendment, which restricts 501(c)(3) tax-deductible organizations, including churches, from engaging in political activity;

    6. Expanding the current ban on campaign contributions and independent expenditures by foreign nationals isn't to foreign-owned and controlled domestic corporations;

    7. Overturning Citizens United v. FEC (which allows corporations to spend nearly limitless amounts of money influencing the outcomes of elections), McCutcheon v. Fec (which allows politicians’ joint fundraising committees to collect limitless donations from wealthy donors), and Buckley v. Valeo (which prevents limits on electoral spending) through the Democracy for All Amendment (H.J. Res 2);

    8. Supporting and co-sponsoring the No PAC Act (H.R. 1743), which would prohibit candidates for federal office from accepting PAC contributions and which would eliminate leadership PACs;

    9. Reducing conflicts of interest, closing the revolving door for lobbyists, and strengthening anti-corruption enforcement through the Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act (HR 7140);

    10. Supporting the Shareholder Protection Act (HR 376), which would increase transparency and implement an SEC-enforced rule requiring companies to receive shareholder authorization of political expenditures in excess of $50,000;

    11. Requiring that the FCC demand that outside political groups and “dark money” organizations disclose the names of major donors funding political ads by passing the KOCH Act (H.R. 1439);

    12. Preventing single-candidate Super PACs from coordinating or acting as arms of political campaigns;

    13. Breaking up big tech and holding Facebook accountable for the role it plays in spreading toxic disinformation-for-profit;

    14. Refusing all contributions from any PAC and/or federal lobbyists.