Today, Issue One’s ReFormers Caucus aired an ad during CNN’s “Newsroom,” Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” and MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” programs to introduce the growing bipartisan support for money-in-politics reform and to emphasize solutions to America’s governing crisis.
In the 60 second ad, former senator and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and former senator and RNC chair Bill Brock (R-TN) join Sen. Bill Bradley (D-NJ) and Ambassador and Rep. Tim Roemer (D-IN) to affirm that reducing the influence of money in politics requires leaders of both parties to come together—the kind of bipartisan commitment to reform the ReFormers Caucus offers.
The ad coincides with the ReFormers Caucus’ public demand that the candidates and moderators specify their stance on campaign finance reforms at the upcoming presidential debates on Dec. 15 and Dec. 19.
The ReFormers Caucus brings together more than 100 former members of Congress and governors of all political stripes to demand solutions that will reorient democracy back toward Main Street and give elected officials the freedom to lead again. With 116 members and counting, the ReFormers Caucus is the first group of its kind, boasting former representatives, senators, governors, CIA directors and a vice president, as well as cabinet secretaries and ambassadors spanning the past five administrations. Together, they are using their collective wisdom and experience to push for the change Americans are clamoring for.
“Liberal, conservative — it doesn’t make any difference,” former senator and Republican National Committee chairman Bill Brock tells the camera. “People get the sense that they don’t have any voice anymore. That’s terrifying.”
The ad is part of a larger push to make campaign finance reform a central issue in the 2016 elections, which includes pressuring debate moderators to ask critical reform questions to candidates. Outside the Beltway, reform earns strong bipartisan support. That’s why Issue One and the ReFormers are dedicated to achieving nothing short of a radical shift in our political landscape, one that forces Washington to reckon with the 84 percent of Americans who want dramatic changes to political system. Because, as Pew Research Center recently found, “Americans of different political persuasions may not agree on much, but one thing they do agree on is that money has a greater – and mostly negative – influence on politics than ever before.”
“Left, right, Democrats, Republicans, Independents. We all need to work together to fix this,” said former ambassador Tim Roemer. “The great thing about the ReFormers Caucus is that we have specific solutions to fix it, and fix it now.”
