Magaziner Calls on Opponents to Sign “People’s Pledge” - Brown Calls It “Empty Gimmick”
GoLocalProv Poliical Team
Magaziner Calls on Opponents to Sign “People’s Pledge” - Brown Calls It “Empty Gimmick”
Former Rhode Island Secretary of State — and former gubernatorial candidate Matt Brown — fired back, calling the move an “empty gimmick.”
As for other candidates, Governor Dan McKee’s campaign said he had “no comment."
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST
Magaziner v. Brown
“Unlimited dark money and misinformation are threatening our democracy and as candidates, we have the power to do something about it,” said General Treasurer Magaziner. “I am asking all of my opponents to sign a People’s Pledge to stand against Citizens United and unlimited outside spending not just with words, but with actions.”
In a letter Magaziner sent to his opponents on Wednesday, he requested the campaigns meet to discuss and formalize the terms of the People’s Pledge and select a neutral party to enforce the pledge.
According to Magaziner’s camp, “The People’s Pledge was first developed by Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Scott Brown during the 2012 Senate election in Massachusetts. Warren and Brown each agreed to contribute to charity from their respective campaign funds whenever an outside group spent money on ads helping them or attacking the opposition. Various forms of the People’s Pledge have been taken in other races around the country including in the 2014 Rhode Island gubernatorial democratic primary. In that race, Secretary Raimondo, former Mayor Angel Tavares, and Clay Pell negotiated and signed a People’s Pledge that was successful in keeping dark money out of that primary race.”
Brown’s camp called out Magaziner’s request on Wednesday.
“Let’s call this what it is: an empty, ineffective, and unenforceable gimmick that will do nothing meaningful to get money out of our politics,” said Brown’s campaign.
“We need to get corporate money out of politics and we should instead be talking about a pledge that actually does that. Here’s what we propose: no dark money, no corporate PAC money, no corporate lobbyist money, and no fossil fuel money. Because that’s what’s actually damaging democracy and drowning out the voices of grassroots supporters and voters’ here in Rhode Island,” said the Brown campaign.
“In fact, we unilaterally pledged not to take any corporate PAC, corporate lobbyist, or fossil fuel money when we launched this campaign -- not as a stunt to win a news cycle, but as a core principle of our campaign from day 1,” the campaign continued. “That’s what we’ll be doing, and if the other campaigns are truly serious about this they’ll join us, and return all the corporate PAC, corporate lobbyist, and fossil fuel money they’ve taken since their last election.”
“It’s pretty brazen for Magaziner to talk about the corrupting influence of money in politics when he takes tens of thousands of dollars in corporate PAC and corporate lobbyist money,” they added.
In addition, Magaziner has repeatedly refused to identify the sources of funds of more than $800,000 he lent his campaign. Magaziner's campaign still has an outstanding debt of $700,000.