Since I had never met Rep. Conaway, who has been my representative in Congress for the last five years, I went to a recent town hall meeting to meet this gentleman.

When I asked Mr. Conaway if he thought it was a good idea for corporations to donate unlimited amounts of money to the campaigns of politicians, Mr. Conaway replied, “I never took money from corporations. It’s illegal for corporations to give money to politicians. They can spend all they want to buy advertising for the candidates of their choice.”

Well, we all know that political candidates use the donations they get from folks like you and me to buy advertising in hopes of influencing our vote. I certainly hope they don’t spend our donated money on vacations or fancy cars.

The truth of the matter is that when corporations start to pump their huge financial resources into political campaigns, the average citizens will never have our voices heard because we simply won’t count any more. Politicians need money to run their campaigns, so they have to go where the money is. Why do corporations want to fund politicians? Well, both you and I already know this answer.

We need campaign reform, but how can we tell the thieves not to steal? Mr. Conaway has to do what he has to do, and he is a pretty smooth talker, at least this was my impression of him.
Kathleen To
Burnet