NH Rebels Launch 10,000-Voter We The People Pledge

On Nov. 5, one year before the 2016 general election, “Paul Revere” and the NH Rebellion unveiled an ambitious We The People Pledge to fight big money in politics.

A delegate delivered the six-part Pledge on foot to the presidential candidates, according to a press statement, while roughly 100 citizen rebels and passersby gathered in front of Manchester City Hall to launch the Pledge at a rally headlined by former New Hampshire Chief Justice John Broderick and Republican attorney Brad Cook.

“As a lawyer and judge, it is deeply troubling to me that corporations have been given free speech rights under the First Amendment,” said John Broderick, who served on the NH Supreme Court from 1994-2010. “Most of the money in politics doesn’t come from us – it comes from special interests. If we don’t deal with the Citizens United ruling by enforcing this Pledge, the people will not be represented and it won’t matter who is on the ballot.”

The launch begins a three-month “march” to the NH primary, with media campaigns and walks planned in dozens of New Hampshire towns to collect at least 10,000 voter pledges before the Rebellion’s “Fight Big Money Convention” in early February.

“Some of the finest, most experienced people aren’t running for office, or don’t stand a chance to get elected, because of the money in politics,” said Brad Cook, past president of the Sheehan Phinney Law Firm and Chair of the NH Ballot Law Commission.

Cook claimed that stopping big money in politics is the most important issue facing the nation and called on the candidates to “support a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United” and endorse the We the People agenda to fight big money.

“Unless there’s transparency and limits on spending in elections, we’re all in trouble,” he added.

Following the noon rally, citizen rebels decked out as Paul Revere embarked on a five-mile march through the streets of Manchester to deliver the parchment Pledges to the Manchester offices of several presidential candidates with the demand that each candidate support the We the People reform agenda before the Feb. 9 New Hampshire Primary. The agenda calls on candidates at all levels of government, beginning with the presidential candidates, to support six fundamental reforms deemed necessary by campaign finance experts to curb the outsized influence of wealthy special interests in government:

• Expose secret donors and require full transparency
• Ban bribes from lobbyists and government contractors
• Ban Super PACs and overturn Citizens United
• Establish small-donor, citizen-funded elections
• End gerrymandering and modernize voter registration
• Close loopholes and enforce campaign finance laws

According to NH Rebellion’s online tracker of candidate statements given in response to citizen rebels questioning them across the state, Republican candidates uniformly favor greater transparency and some have called for pay-to-play lobbying reforms.

Sen. Lindsay Graham is currently the only Republican to call for a constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United, the 2010 Supreme Court decision that allowed unlimited outside spending on behalf of candidates in the form of Super PACs. The tracker shows that Donald Trump, Gov. John Kasich, and Gov. Chris Christie have expressed openness to more far-reaching reforms like small donor, citizen-funded elections, but none of the Republicans have released a comprehensive plan to curtail the outsized influence of big money in politics.

On the Democratic side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Gov. Martin O’Malley recently released detailed plans incorporating many of the items on the We the People agenda in response to the NH Rebellion, although Clinton has yet to address the issue in depth on the stump. Sen. Bernie Sanders has issued repeated calls for overturning Citizens United and related reforms; he has yet to release a detailed plan.

“Talk alone is cheap. It is no longer good enough for candidates to acknowledge that big money is corrupting our politics,” Weeks said. “The time has come for all those who aspire to lead our nation and state to endorse these concrete solutions for restoring representative government in Washington and around the country. We call on all candidates to sign the We the People pledge today.

The New Hampshire Rebellion (#NHRebellion) is a cross-partisan movement of citizens who are Walking the Talk to get big money out of politics — 30,000 miles and counting. Inspired by the Declaration of Independence and Article 10 of the NH Constitution, NH Rebellion is mobilizing the public and presidential candidates to declare their independence from big money in politics by denouncing outside spending and committing to fundamental reforms. NH Rebellion is part of Open Democracy, the NH nonprofit founded by legendary reformer Doris “Granny D” Haddock.