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Iowa CCI conducted a poll of political donors across the state about their attitudes towards the influence of big money in politics and public financed elections…

CCI recently conducted a survey of current political donors to gauge their support of VOICE and taking big money out of politics. We conducted this survey because we believe that political donors would also support public financing to reduce the role that money plays in campaigning and the reliance on large contributions to candidates. The survey results show that those with a financial stake in the outcome of state elections believe that the current system is broken. We contacted 2,861 donors and conducted interviews with 1,502 people who were chosen because they donated to political candidates for state office. The charts that follow show the findings of this study, which break down support for VOICE by income, amount donated and political party.

http://www.voterownediowa.org/news/zata3-iapublicfinancingsurveyreport.pdf

While many may expect political donors to be content with the current system, our survey reveals that donors across the political and financial spectrum are in support of a system where people matter more, and money matters less.

The poll shows Iowans are against the influence of big money in politics.

When asked, “Many people believe there is too much money in the political process. Do you agree or disagree?” nearly nine out of 10 (88 percent of) donors said they agreed. Just six percent of respondents said they did not believe there was too much money in politics.

These sentiments go across party lines as well, with 89 percent of Democrats, 88 percent of Republicans, and 82 percent of Independents agreeing that there is too much money in politics.

The poll shows strong support across party lines for public financed elections and specifically the VOICE bill.

73 percent of political contributors support public financing as laid out in the VOICE Act as a way to reduce the role money is playing in our political process. (Only 20 percent were opposed.)2

This support also crosses party lines - 75 percent of Democratic donors, 70 percent of Republican donors, and 74 percent of Independent donors favor VOICE.

The support is pretty even across income levels as well…

Eighty-one percent of those polled that have a household income over $100,000 supported VOICE, and 74 percent of those with a household income less than $100,000 supported VOICE. (This leaves out a group who did not disclose their household income, which still supported VOICE at 65 percent.)

The last 2 legislative sessions, political leaders refused to allow the VOICE bill to come up for a vote. The VOICE legislation would bring voluntary clean elections to Iowa.

The VOICE bill would require candidates to get $5 donations along with their signatures to qualify. All of this money would go into a fund that would be used by candidates that have met the requirements to earn public money. The rest of the money would come from unclaimed property and a check off on your state income taxes.

Under the VOICE bill no taxpayer money would be used unless you want to mark the check off on your state income taxes. Overall, the system would cost around $10 million or less than 1/10 of 1% of the state’s annual budget.

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In Friday night’s debate John McCain said the tax rate in the United States on corporations is too high.

McCain must have forgotten that most corporations aren’t pay any taxes at all.

The Government Accountability Office is set to release a report that says most U.S. corporations pay no federal income taxes.

And most foreign companies that do business in the United States aren’t paying corporate taxes.

The study says about two-thirds of American corporations paid zero income taxes to Uncle Sam between 1998 and 2005.

An even higher percentage of foreign corporations avoided federal corporate taxes.

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In May I wrote about Wells’ Dairy failing to create the jobs they promised when they received taxpayer money under the Iowa Values Fund.

On Friday, Wells Dairy agreed to repay the money…

Wells’ Dairy Inc., the maker of Blue Bunny ice cream, has repaid the state $1.25 million of $2.9 million in forgivable loans it received to build a new headquarters in Le Mars.

The state has found Wells’ Dairy did not meet its job creation commitments.

The company, which had been mulling a move to Nebraska or South Dakota, had agreed to create 128 jobs and retain 346 existing jobs for a total of 475 positions overall. It had also committed to complete a new $25 million corporate headquarters.

The state’s review found that Wells’ Dairy fell 158 positions short of its employment projection.

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I can’t tell you how stupid Nancy Pelosi must be. I spent most of my morning watching CSPAN, I saw Minority Leader Boehner, Roy Blunt, and Chairman Frank talk about the need for the United States Government to step in and do something to limit a fur…

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MADtv got into the Palin comedy sketches with this video of Palin taking questions from the audience.

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I apologize for not doing a write up of the Presidential Debate between John McCain and Senator Barack Obama on Friday night. The debate I watched had a very confident John McCain who consistently pounded his inexperienced opponent, Barack Obama.Now a…

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David Sirota sums up what the passage of a $700 billion bailout for Wall St. would mean to progressive reforms…

Food for thought: $700 billion is about 5 percent of our entire economy. It is roughly enough to create a universal health care system for the next 5 to 10 years. It is also enough to fund the energy and infrastructure investments most economists say we need to build our economy in the 21st century. Handing that $700 billion over to Wall Street and putting it on the national credit card will make it almost impossible to finance these priorities.

Put another way, lawmakers who vote for this $700 billion bailout are potentially casting a vote to decapitate the progressive movement and the major tenets of its agenda - at least for the next generation.

Contact your members of Congress and tell them irresponsible CEOs don’t need to be bailed out.

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American Toad - Bufo americanus.

American toads require a semi-permanent freshwater pond o…

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The Register’s David Yepsen thought John McCain won Friday night’s presidential debate.

It was one of the most substantive debates in recent presidential campaign history, and John McCain won it.

The Arizona senator was cool, informed and forceful in Friday’s first presidential debate of the general election campaign.

He repeatedly put Barack Obama on the defensive throughout the 90-minute session. Obama did little to assure voters that he is experienced enough to handle foreign and defense policy. That was his No. 1 task Friday night, and he failed.

Makes me wonder if Yepsen was watching the debate from Sporer’s basement.

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Tina Fey with another great spoof of Tina Fey last night on Saturday Night Live…

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