I practice what I preach

It’s common knowledge that challengers and incumbent politicians hold on to unused money raised during a campaign. Why? So they can fund their next political battle, or buy favors with it.

It is one of my core beliefs that campaign finance reform is critical to fair elections. Elections are not fair at the moment, by design.

I have written about this a number of times and practiced what I preached in my last campaign. The FEC allows a candidate to refund a proportionate amount of money to their contributors after a campaign. To the best of my knowledge, nobody does.

I did.

And rather than give a proportionate amount back, I decided to refund every penny contributed and bear the entire retroactive expense of my campaign myself. I didn’t raise a lot of money, but I thought that it was the honest thing to do. Imagine that, an honest politician!

I hope that when I go back for the 2014 congressional campaign and ask for new donations from prior contributors that will give even more than the last time. If not, that’s okay.

I did the right thing. Did your congressman or woman do that?