Governor Steve Bullock of Montana

11/10/2014

Governor Steve Bullock

Office of the Governor

PO Box 200801

Helena, MT 59620-0801

Dear Governor Bullock,

My name is Matthew Winick with a strong interest in history from Ann Arbor, Michigan. The reason I am writing you a letter is because I find your work as an Attorney General of Montana and later as Governor of Montana on advocating for campaign finance reform very inspiring to me.  I strongly believe that campaign finance reform is an important issue and there is a strong need for it; to reduce corruption in elections, reduce dark money influence from different groups (special interest groups, PACs, non-profit groups, and outside money from different states), reduce lobbying groups influence on political members like Congressional, Judicial, governors, and state with local electives from being corrupted by their money, and make the system to be fair for voters or constituents.  After the Supreme Court sided with Citizen United with many other lobbying groups by saying money is freedom of speech I was amazed when you were an Attorney General of Montana challenging the Supreme Court ruling by defending your state’s campaign finance law banning corporate campaign expenditures.  Even though the Supreme Court didn’t side with your state with your effort to defend Montana’s law, I am very proud of you for making a great example not only for Montana, but for me and the rest of our country by advocating the need for campaign finance reform with your ideas to make elections fairer, and reducing corruption in the political system.  

 After watching you on the news advocating for campaign finance reform I decided to do more research about your ideas for campaign finance reform and I am amazed that you are still continuing on working with both parties as Governor of Montana on campaign finance reform.  I recently studied you idea called TRACE(Transparency, Reporting and Accountability in Campaigns and Elections) and I like the ideas that you worked on with State Senator Jim Peterson, a Republican. TRACE has great ideas like limiting how much money a candidate running for office can get from a political committee, require all major donors to be identified through public disclosure, prohibit corporate and union contributions to a candidate (except for voluntary contributions from an employee or a member of an organization), and many others.

As a voter, an American, and with a strong interest in history I strongly believe that there is a need for campaign finance reform for our country and in American History to not repeat the same mistakes, help improve voters confidence to participate in elections, reduce corruption in elections including political office, reduce money influence in elections, candidates or with political career, end the lobbying influence with special interest groups, and reduce wasteful spending. From a history perspective I strongly believe that you Governor Bullock make a great difference for our country and history by being a true advocate for campaign finance reform with government reform. I Also I am proud of you as a moderate Democrat for standing up to the lobbying groups by siding with the people, I strongly believe that you can make a difference for our country, and for political parties.  Thanks for taking the time to read my letter. I appreciate with respect for your work on campaign finance reform that both political parties ignore. I wish you well continuing being Governor of Montana and continue fighting for our values to make our country more democratic with campaign finance reform with government reform. I am proud to call you a true American influential on advocating for change and reform.

Sincerely,

Matthew B. Winick