Word: reformer
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...this race so important? The main reason is one Washington insiders don't want you to know about: campaign finance reform...
...reform. The bane of the Capital Hill establishment. Two years ago, Feingold, along with senior Sen. John McCain (R-Az.), introduced a remarkable piece of legislation, meant to effectively abolish the corrupt and undemocratic system of campaign finance. The McCain-Feingold Bill would limit Political Action Committee (PAC) contributions and ban "soft money," the unlimited contributions to political parties which are then diverted to individual campaigns. For the last two years, however, McCain-Feingold has been ignored by the United States Congress, left to languish in some subcommittee...
...resistance to reform shows the depths of money and influence in our government. Powerful interest groups--the media, labor groups, tobacco, the National Rifle Associations (NRA) and religious conservatives--use big bucks to back candidates for public office. As a result, elected representatives are responsible to them and not the citizens they are supposed to represent. These special interest groups are holding our Constitution hostage and will not give it back...
Still, Chicago's experience has inspired other mayors frustrated with their city's public schools. Even mayors with little hope of gaining full authority over schools have begun to push aggressively for greater influence. Philadelphia Mayor Edward Rendell has put his political muscle behind the city's reform-oriented superintendent, and Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan has stirred controversy by backing his own slate of school-board candidates. "The school board's attitude toward me is, 'Stay out of our business,'" says Riordan. "But we know who the people will hold accountable if the system continues to fail"--the mayor...
TIME pointed to useful strategies for halting urban sprawl [NATION, March 22]. Important as these are, none will stop the sprawl steamroller without another essential element--reform of the property tax. This tax inflates land prices and spurs nonuse and abuse of city sites, driving development out into forests and fields. It raises your taxes when you build and maintain homes or stores but lowers them if you let properties decay. These pocketbook incentives for destroying communities are a prime cause of the out-migration that fuels sprawls. WALTER RYBECK Kensington...