http://mycn2.com/politics/louisville-group-joins-nationwide-call-for-constitutional-reform-to-campaign-finance

Publication Date: January 19, 2013

Author: Ryan Alessi

Louisville group joins nationwide call for constitutional reform to campaign finance

01/19/2013 03:24 PM

George Schuhmann, a retired lawyer from Louisville, first got involved in politics two years ago when he was inspired to get money _out of politics.

Schuhmann organized a rally Saturday — one of more than 100 across the country — aimed at highlighting the need for campaign finance reforms.

The roughtly two-dozen protesters who joined Schuhmann in downtown Louisville support amending the U.S. Constitution to bar corporate donations in the U.S. political process and to undo the precedent set by the Supreme Court in the Citizens United case. But the group isn’t expecting this to happen overnight.

“It’s a wonderfully complicated jurisprudential undertaking to do that job,” Schuhmann told Pure Politics. “So it’s going to take some time to get the wording right.”

One of the speakers at the small rally, state Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, D-Louisville, has filed House Concurrent Resolution 6 in which the General Assembly would call on Congress to propose a 28th Amendment to the Constitition.

Schuhmann said the goal is to lobby lawmakers to pass that resolution, if not in 2013, during the 2014 session.

And the effort could need money to fight money. Schuhmann said he hopes the group he has formed, calling itself Citizens Voices, can put together a Political Action Committee to raise about $25,000 to help fund lobbying efforts.

Here are some highlights of some the remarks from Marzian and Richard Beliles, the Louisville attorney and chairman of Common Cause Kentucky:

About Ryan Alessi

Ryan Alessi joined cn|2 in May 2010 as senior managing editor and host of Pure Politics. He has covered politics for more than 10 years, including 7 years as a reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader. Follow Ryan on Twitter @cn2Alessi. Ryan can be reached at 502-792-1135 or ryan.alessi@twcable.com.

Comments

  • viewer wrote on January 20, 2013 11:18 AM :

    Anyone that dont support this action is either getting paid by politics or dont no anything about politics. Money and greed has destroyed this country. We have become comfortable numb. Pink Floyd

  • Paul Hosse wrote on January 20, 2013 11:42 AM :

    Couldn’t agree more. The only way to create a true democratic government is to remove the influence of money from politics. Citizens United was one of the worse decision ever handled down by the Supreme Court. It not just said corporations had “free speech”, which it equated with money, but that corporations actually have greater rights than flesh and blood citizens by allowing unrestricted contributions while maintaing caps of individual donations.

  • waybert17 wrote on January 24, 2013 12:04 PM :

    I noticed he is calling for certain bans on some groups…but not all groups. Does this mean, if the group or organization supports his political views, that he fine with the contributions from some and not others? I would like to see all monies in politics banned, regardless of whether the group/organization supports my political views or not. If we are going to call ourselves fair…would this not be fair? Certainly, as individuals we have the right to contribute to our favorites in politics….but we should not have that right as a member of a corporation, group, or organization.

  • Paul Hosse wrote on January 25, 2013 08:19 PM :

    The Citizens United ruling was poor decision. Politicians will reap the rewards while corporations will get what they paid for and the American People will pay the price.

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