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Advocacy Blog
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
ChangeCongress Helps Empower Citizens
Last week a new effort began which uses technology to promote a transparent and open government. ChangeCongress wants legislators to make four commitments, which they can do by filling out a form indicating which of the pledges they support. In the end, it provides a graphic that the candidates can then place on their election campaign web sites. Citizens can also fill out pledges to put on their own website. ChangeCongress is an innovative way to organize citizens, encourage them to be politically active, and in doing so demands accountability in political campaigns.
Founder Lawrence Lessig writes on HuffingtonPost.com; "Change-Congress.org will be a bi-partisan, web-based effort to leverage and amplify the important reform work being done by others. […] Change-Congress.org will develop in three stages. The first layer will give candidates and Members of Congress a simple way to signal their support for any mix of four fundamental planks of reform: (1) a promise not to accept PAC or lobbyist contributions, (2) a commitment to abolish "earmarks" permanently, (3) a commitment to support public financing of public elections, and (4) a commitment to compel transparency in the functioning of Congress. Once a candidate or Member selects the planks he or she supports, the site will give the candidate code to embed that pledge on the campaign website. Citizens too will be able to take a similar pledge, promising to support candidates who match their own vision of reform. When they do, they will be linked back to reform organizations that support each plank.
Video of the launch of ChangeCongress is available from the Sunlight Foundation.
Posted by Amanda Adams
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