Cicilline Finally Signs MoveOn.org Pledge

Cicilline Finally Signs MoveOn.org Pledge

Congressional candidate David Cicilline announced yesterday he had signed the MoveOn.org pledge on campaign finance reform, after getting the group to add a lifetime ban on members of Congress becoming lobbyists. Cicilline had previously said he wouldn’t sign it because it only imposed a five-year ban on ex-Congressmen becoming lobbyists.

The announcement ends a major point of contention between Cicilline and Democratic primary opponent David Segal. The latter had asked Cicilline if he had signed the pledge at a debate hosted by ABC 6 last week. Cicilline said he had, but then a GoLocalProv report found that he in fact had not. At a debate in Woonsocket Thursday, Cicilline said he wouldn’t sign it because his own plan for campaign finance reform was stronger—calling for a lifetime ban on members of Congress becoming lobbyists.

The pledge also calls for the Fair Elections Now Act and overturning the Citizens United decision, which allows corporations to spend money in elections. Segal and Bill Lynch have both signed it.

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“If we are going to fix what’s broken in Washington, we first need to break the link between money and politics, and the challenges we face as a nation are too great for half-measures or partial reform,” Cicilline said. “I am proud to support a stronger, amended version of MoveOn.org’s pledge to commit to reform our campaign finance system.”