John McCain
Von: sarah.crawford@mindspring.com
An: ulischaarschmidt@t-online.de
Betreff: Letter from Sen. McCain
Datum: Mit, 28. Jun 2000 19:48 Uhr

Dear Friend,
Our quest for reform scored a major victory yesterday as the House joined
with the Senate in voting overwhelmingly for legislation to require
so-called "527" political organizations to disclose their donors to the
public. The Senate had already passed a similar amendment I had sponsored
a few weeks ago. This bill will go to the President for signing as the
first breakthrough on campaign reform. It just demonstrates the power of
the movement that we have created and the potential for change that exists.

Today's Washington Post calls the House vote a "victory for Sen. John
McCain, who made campaign finance reform a centerpiece of his unsuccessful
presidential campaign."

My friends, last night's vote was not a victory for me - it was a victory
for all of you. For it has been your vigilant efforts that have kept the
pressure on Washington to stop the simple talk about reform, and start
passing real legislation to clean up our nation's corrupt campaign finance
system. You deserve the credit for this vote, not me.

And yet, while we should celebrate this small victory, we must not forget
that it was but a skirmish in a much larger battle - a battle to reform our
institutions of government and wrestle control of the levers of democracy
away from the special interests, and return them back to you.

Still looming on the horizon is our renewed fight to ban once and for all
soft money from American politics. How many more election cycles
contaminated by special interest money must we go through before Congress
will finally act? How many millions of additional dollars must flow from
the labor unions and the big corporations straight into our two party's
coffers before Congress will pass real reform? And how many more
foreign governments will follow the lead of the Chinese and pump millions
into our political system before a majority in the House and Senate says
enough is enough?

I am hopeful, with your help, that the answer to all of these questions
will be "None."

We have had several great victories in the past few weeks in the fight for
reform but our work is far from over. Here is a link to the House roll
call vote on the bill so you can see how your member voted: Roll Call Vote

Thank you again for your support and friendship. Without your support none
of these changes would be possible.

John McCain


http://www.mccaininteractive.com