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Quotes of the Day
Friday, April 26th, 2013
Robert Wechsler
“The real issue is who’s giving money and real transparency. We’re going to do this in a way that’s above board. We’re each going to be contributing our ethical and moral standards that we have been living our lives by.”
—New Haven mayoral candidate Matthew Nemerson on why he's not going to participate in the New Haven Democracy Fund, one of the few municipal public campaign financing programs in the U.S. He says that instead he will make campaign contributions public within 48 hours of receipt (candidates participating in the Democracy Fund enter their contributions into the state's database, and they must be made public at least monthly during the campagn, and are searchable).
What is fascinating about this quote is that the usual personal moral standard line is used here with respect to public financing, as if we learn from our family and our house of worship whether it is more ethical to be quickly transparent (and how much, since we don't know if Nemerson will actually tell the public who works for a contractor, developer, lobbying firm, etc.) or to accept contribution and spending limits, as well as other restrictions that are part and parcel of a public financing program. For the record, I administered the program from its inception until last July. This quote is from a New Haven Independent article from a week ago.
Here are some more quotes from Nemerson, from a debate sponsored by Yale Democrats, taken from an Independent article from this week:
“It really doesn’t matter how we collect money. ... I agree that
money should be out of government." But, he said, there’s a big
difference between money in government at the federal or state level
and at the city level. At the city level, he said, there is less
danger of corruption.
“The reality is, we’re all really honorable people. There really is
nothing to buy here, folks.”
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