Good Government

By David H. Krikorian

Whether people consider themselves Liberal or Conservative, we can all agree that we want a government we can trust, that does its job, and does not misinform us.

Whether people consider themselves Liberal or Conservative, we can all agree that we want a government we can trust, that does its job, and does not misinform us. One of my top priorities when you send me to Washington will be to work for:

- Simple and Powerful Legislative Process Reforms

- Open, Honest and Fair Elections

- Real Campaign Finance Reform

- Transparency and Accountability

Reforming the Legislative Process

I am a fan of the citizen politician; unfortunately, our government today is largely comprised of career politicians, special interest groups and political action committees. Here are the reforms I would propose:

- All bills should be justified as Constitutional

- Representatives must read and write the bills

- Each bill can have only one subject

You would assume that these things already occur, but they do not. Each bill should cite chapter and verse where in the Constitution congress has the authority to enact the particular piece of legislation.

Representatives should write and read all bills. These functions are basic to the lawmaking process yet we often find that our Representatives do not read proposed legislation before voting on it. Furthermore, Representatives rarely write the bills they seek to enact. It is hard for me to envision our founding fathers outsourcing the Constitution to a lobbying group to write and then not reading it before signing their names to it.

Last, I strongly believe we need to limit legislation to one subject at a time for each bill. Allowing for multiple subjects allows legislators to stuff bills full of irrelevant earmarks and amendments. Restricting bills to one subject at a time will help produce better government that works for the people.

Electoral Reform

Possibly the single biggest opportunity to bring about positive change in America is to reform our approach to elections. People are jaded with elections because they do not trust their vote to be counted and feel that it is all driven by who has the most money anyway. Even worse is that when people vote for an independent candidate others call it a "wasted" vote. I will work to fix this perceived lack of integrity by:

- Eliminating the concept of "wasted" votes

- Give people proof that their vote was counted

As an independent candidate in 2008, I often heard voters tell me that I was the best candidate in the race but that they did not think an Independent could win and they did not want to waste their vote. I propose a model of single-winner voting along the lines of single transferable, Schulze method, approval, or ranked pairs voting. These methods allow voters to rank their preferred candidates so if their #1 candidate is not going to win then their votes go to their #2 candidate. In short, nobody's vote will ever be "wasted."

Finally, to give voters proof that their vote was counted I support passage of the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2009 (H.R.2894). This would guarantee voters a paper receipt confirming that their vote counted. Real Campaign Finance Reform

Sadly, most members of Congress spend more time fundraising for re-election than they spend on representing the interests of their districts. I want to fix Congress by refocusing the role of representatives back to serving the people and away from the endless cycle of fundraising and campaigning. Money in politics drowns out the voice of the people. To take the money out of politics I support the passage of the Fair Elections Now Act (H.R.1826) which establishes an option for candidates to seek public financing rather than rely on special interests. I would also vote for passage of multiple bills that would curb money in politics and support the passage of a Constitutional amendment that would ban special interest money in political campaigns. I want every voter to go to the polls knowing that special interests and career politicians do not run our elections.

Promoting Government Transparency

Americans have a civic duty to hold their government accountable and the government should not interfere with that process. I support passage of the Public Online Information Act of 2010 (H.R.4858) which will allow citizens to access government information available under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) online.

I believe the American people should have a chance to comment on any legislation that Congress is voting on and will fight to ensure that all bills are available online for public comment at least 72 hours before Congress votes on them. This protects us from half-baked bills (like the one that bailed out the banks) from being rushed through Congress.