“Our representative democracy is broken,” Sen. Ginny Lyons (D-Chittenden) told reporters at a Statehouse press conference Thursday morning. “As we look at Washington and ask Washington for help, we’re frequently met with closed doors. But those doors are very much open to the influence of corporate money.”

For that reason, Lyons said, Vermont must once again call for a constitutional amendment reversing Citizens United and other recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions that abolished limits on corporate spending in politics.

But as Sen. Nero fiddled, Rome was burning all around her.

Just a day before Lyons’ press conference, the Vermont House voted 96 to 49 in favor of a so-called “campaign finance reform” bill that actually increases the amount individuals, corporations and unions can donate to statewide candidates, political action committees and parties. 

Under the guise of stemming the flow of special interest money into Vermont politics, the House further opened the floodgates. And it didn’t even consider the one provision that could realistically reduce corporate cash in Vermont: banning direct corporate contributions to political candidates.

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Paul Heintz was part of the Seven Days news team from 2012 to 2020. He served as political editor and wrote the "Fair Game" political column before becoming a staff writer.

2 replies on “Amid Calls for Campaign Finance Reform, the Vermont Legislature is Poised to Make it Worse”

  1. “Sen. Bob Hartwell (D-Bennington) and Lyons herself — voted last month against barring direct corporate contributions to candidates.”
    Are you suggesting that hypocrisy or worse, demagoguery is at work here?

  2. Well, at least if nothing else is working someone is willing to step up. Plus, if VT passed legislation banning corporate contributions the courts would overrule and we’d be back to the drawing board minus a couple million in legal fees. No thanks. I’ll take the article V convention thing over our courts any day of the week. And let’s be honest, are we really surprised that Shumlin is keen on Super PAC $$ being available to him when he’s toying a bid for a national campaign? Seems he outgrew his mucking boots and traded them in a for a new pair of DC wingtips.

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