ICYMI: Congressman Chris Pappas Launches Anti-Corruption Agenda, Joins ECU President Tiffany Muller to Discuss Key Issues and Senate Campaign
MANCHESTER, N.H. — In case you missed it, Congressman Chris Pappas launched his Anti-Corruption Agenda today outlining his efforts to create a better system of Government that works for everyday Americans – not Washington insiders, corporations and self-enriching politicians. Pappas joined End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller for a wide-ranging Substack livestream about his plan to make government work for people again and his campaign for the U.S. Senate.
In Congress, Pappas, who recently joined the End Corruption Caucus, has led efforts to ban Congressional stock trading, strengthen regulations on dark money in our elections, and make the Office of Congressional Ethics permanent. End Citizens United endorsed Chris Pappas’s campaign for U.S. Senate when he entered the race last April.
You can read the full anti-corruption agenda here, watch the full conversation here and view key excerpts below:
Chris’s Anti-Corruption Agenda
- PAPPAS: “We’ve got to clean things up, and I think that starts by making sure that we have people in the House of Representatives and the Senate, that are working under the toughest ethical regulations. That we’re passing new laws to ban things like stock trading. Right now, we have members of Congress that, on an annual basis, are trading millions of dollars worth of stocks, and they have access to very sensitive information that could potentially help them make trades and pad their bottom lines.”
- PAPPAS: “These prediction markets are rife for the kind of corruption that’s been reported on over the last few weeks. You have these well-timed trades that are being made and in advance of, say, military action. People are taking advantage of knowledge that they have, and some accounts are reaping huge benefits. We have to have some oversight, and that’s why I’ve called for investigations into these prediction markets, making sure that we’re issuing subpoenas and that Congress is doing its job.”
- PAPPAS: “We have to overturn the Citizens United decision. We have to work to provide disclosure. People need to know who’s trying to influence their votes and trying to influence policies in Congress. We have to have the power of our democracy fully in the hands of the American people, and so our anti-corruption agenda […] has all those facets that address corruption in Congress, in the executive branch, and the ways that we can clean up our political system to make sure that voters are in the driver’s seat.”
Getting Dark Money Out of Our Elections and Joining the End Corruption Caucus
- PAPPAS: “We’ve seen an explosion of dark special interest money spent in elections. […] We’ve got to unmask these wealthy donors, the billionaires and the big companies that are flooding the airwaves and are flooding the zone every time an election is rolling around. The American people should know who’s trying to influence their votes, and the DISCLOSE Act would require disclosure above a certain amount of contributions to organizations that are seeking to influence votes, airing ads, doing voter contact, or doing all the work around elections, because we’ve got to make sure that we are paying close attention to who’s behind those messages, so that we can have a critical eye as consumers of this information.”
- PAPPAS: “Ultimately, this is about making sure voters are empowered, and this is one step that we need to take, in addition to working to chip away at that [Citizens United] decision, which is just one of the worst the court has handed down in my lifetime. And, by continuing to make the case on overturning it fully —and we’re committed to doing that. We’ve got to get it done in order to have a political system where we’re able to have conversations out there in the community, and it’s not drowned out by billions of dollars of special interest spending.”
Signing ECU’s Unrig Washington Pledge and Not Taking a Dime of Corporate PAC Money
- PAPPAS: “It’s something that was important to people in New Hampshire. When I first ran for Congress, we had a lot of conversations about [ECU’s Unrig Washington] pledge. Voters saw value in it because it was a good indicator not just of where you would stand with respect to corporate special interests, but the other ways that you would try to stand up for reform and try to fix Washington.”
- PAPPAS: “I’ve gone through four really tough campaigns for Congress. […] We’re a very purple state. Everything’s always close, and I would have a lot of folks in the party saying ‘you’re tying one hand behind your back, you’re at a disadvantage competitively with your Republican opponents’ and we’ve always managed to outraise our opposition based on individual contributions, a lot of online contributions from people, including those who really like the idea of a member of Congress that’s showing some independence and that doesn’t have these sorts of connections.”
New Hampshire’s Margin of Error Senate Race
- PAPPAS: “This is an open seat Senate race in a very purple state. Republicans control everything at the state level. Democrats have had some success in federal office, but it’s always by very, very close margins. So we expect this will be a tough fight. We’re already seeing a lot of firepower arrayed on the other side from dark money groups and special interests that want to support my likely Republican opponent, John Sununu.”
- PAPPAS: “We have a lot of swing voters that will split their tickets, and so they’re thinking about things like the high cost of gas, the high cost of health care, the way that housing, whether it’s your mortgage or your rent, is just increasingly unaffordable right now, and the way that the majorities [in Congress] and the administration are totally ignoring the will of the people and are just saying that this stuff doesn’t matter and they’re actively making it worse. The tariffs. The war. All these things are adding to a really tough financial picture for families.”
Voter Frustration With Washington
- PAPPAS: “Things have gotten so rigged and so skewed against everyday Americans, and they see that through the way that they’re working harder than ever and finding it harder to provide for their families. High energy costs, high gas prices, housing costs that are through the roof, health care cuts that are impacting people directly. But they also see it in terms of the self-serving nature of folks in Washington, D.C. that are ignoring their problems and are focused on padding the bottom lines of themselves and their political cronies. This election has got to be about how we change that.”