People Powered Congress- the innovative solution that lobbyists fear

March 5, 2010

By paul collier

To get special interests out of politics, get Congress out of Washington Ralph Benko

Ralph Benko’s innovative idea to get the special interests out of Washington is to allow remote voting by congressmen, keeping them in their districts and not in a central gathering place that makes it easy for lobbyists to get access to them, while harder for their remotely located constituents to reach them.

Read more here:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.congress02,0,2975827.story

We send our elected representatives far from home to conduct the people’s business. We send them to Washington, D.C., where they form what our flyboys (and flygirls) call “a
target-rich environment” for the lobbyists and for the political party
leadership.

We send them far from us … to conduct our business. There was no other way in
the 18th and 19th centuries and most of the 20th. In the 21st century, of
course, this is absurd.
http://peoplepoweredcongress.ning.com/