For Immediate Release
Tuesday, August 23, 2016
Contact: Adam Bozzi, [email protected]
Campaign finance reform group End Citizens United (ECU) is launching a grassroots action today targeting Congressman Joe Heck.
ECU members in Nevada will participate in a call-in campaign urging Heck to side with the overwhelming majority of Americans who support overturning the Supreme Court’s misguided Citizens United decision. Heck has instead stood staunchly with the special interests who support the status quo.
“End Citizens United is once again taking action in Nevada to hold Congressman Heck accountable for siding with the special interests, who are spending millions on his campaign, and against Nevada families,” said Tiffany Muller, End Citizens United Executive Director. “He’s voting against the well-being of middle class Nevadans and he’s opposing popular, common-sense reforms to reverse Citizens United, making it more difficult for the rest of us to have our voices heard. The results are that his supporters pile on the cash while Nevadans pay the price.”
A recent poll commissioned by End Citizens United found that nationwide 73 percent of voters have an unfavorable opinion of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, compared to just 18 percent who favor it. Independent voters see reducing the influence of special interest money in government and politics as a top priority, ranking only behind protecting America from terrorism and creating jobs and increasing incomes.
Despite overwhelming support for the overturn of Citizens United, Heck has resisted attempts by reformers to clean up the system. In June, he voted for HR 5053, a Koch-backed bill that would limit disclosure and keep more money in politics anonymous. In July, he voted against amendments that would have helped us learn more about groups using “social welfare loopholes” to anonymously funnel money into elections.
Further, Congressman Heck has taken more than $285,000 from Big Oil and voted to protect their special tax breaks, while voting against key bills that could help create solar jobs in Nevada. He’s taken $40,000 from the Koch brothers and voted for their priorities nearly 80 percent of the time. And he’s taken more than $1.3 million from the financial industry while voting for plans that would risk working families’ Social Security on the stock market, but that could make Wall Street billions.
Last week, ECU launched a new ad in Nevada. Today’s action complements the ad, demonstrating that ECU will continue its efforts in the air and on the ground to hold Heck accountable.
End Citizens United PAC was established in March 2015 to counter the disastrous effects of Citizens United and reform our campaign finance system. To date, more than 1.5 million grassroots members from every state and territory have taken action to support End Citizens United.
Read more on ECU from the San Francisco Chronicle: End Citizens United Aggressively Seeks Campaign Finance Reform.