Issue One welcomes former Republican Representative Joel Hefley to the ReFormers Caucus. He joins more than 165 former members of Congress and governors fighting to return our government to the people.
Rep. Hefley represented Colorado’s 5th District for 20 years, from 1987 to 2007. While in Congress, he served on the House Ethics Committee for three terms and is remembered for speaking out against former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who was later indicted for conspiracy to violate election law, forced to resign, sentenced to three years in jail, and then formally acquitted. “Hefley emerged as a man of integrity,” declared the Denver Post in 2006; the Washington Post heralded Hefley as the “profile of courage” in Congress.
Rep. Hefley’s commitment to ethical governance extended to campaign finance reform. In 2006, he authored the Leadership PAC Prohibition Act to ban members of Congress from using their PACs to raise campaign funds in exchange for leadership positions.
“I think the leadership PACs are a disgrace and a scandal just waiting to break open. This is one example, where you use this to get around the campaign finance laws,” Hefley told the Center for Public Integrity. “I think it’s legal, but I don’t think it should be.”
“It’s become a money-machine place where you’re expected to raise lots of money and pour a lot of that money into the party … if you want to be a [committee] chairman or you want to be in leadership,” Hefley said to the Denver Post a year earlier. “I think that’s scandalous. It’s not just the Republicans. It’s the Democrats, too. That’s very, very frustrating.”
Issue One is thrilled to welcome Congressman Hefley’s experience and leadership on board.
