Opinion

Letter: Let’s make campaigns a true test

By , Published: April 27, 2012

To the editor: Political season is upon us and candidates are amassing hundreds of thousands of dollars in hopes of out spending their opponents and winning the election.With these dollars comes influence. Why else would an individual or corporation donate large sums of money to a public servant? While I believe that our politicians are basically honest and do their best to make decisions that will benefit all our citizens, how can they not be aware of a decision that adversely affects a large donor?

We need to remove the influence of money from our political campaigns and make them true tests of how a candidate will perform once elected.

Let's use taxpayers' money to fund political campaigns.

Here's how it could work.

Citizens wishing to run for office would amass a certain number of names on an election petition in order to qualify as a viable candidate. Each candidate for an office would receive the same amount of money to spend on his or her campaign. We the voters could then assess how well the candidate performed in spending that money and getting his or her views across to the public. We the voters would decide how much we value the political campaigns and how much tax payers money would be used in each election.

As our system now stands, the folks donating the money get the best hearing from the elected official. Let's erase this flaw or "potential flaw" from our beloved system of democratic elections. Let's give each candidate an equal chance to be seen and heard.

Chuck Willson

Greenville, NC

Dr. Charles Willson, a pediatrician, is a clinical professor of pediatrics at the Brody School of Medicine at ECU and serves as co-director of the Center for Children with Complex and Chronic Conditions.