Hillary Clinton committed Saturday to introducing a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United decision within her first 30 days in office, if she’s elected president. The announcement will come in a video during the closing keynote of the progressive Netroots Nation conference this afternoon, and it’s yet another attempt to adopt the positions of her vanquished primary rival Sen. Bernie Sanders. “The amendment would allow Americans to establish common sense rules to protect against the undue influence of billionaires and special interests and to restore the role of average voters in elections,” a Clinton spokesman said in statement. Last fall as the primary season ramped up and Sanders gained momentum, Clinton called for the 2010 Citizens United v FEC decision, which spawned the creation of super PACS, to be overturned. She also said she wanted more stringent political spending disclosure rules, and a new public matching regime so that presidential and congressional campaigns could more easily solicit small donations.
In addition to this constitutional amendment, the Clinton spokesman said, she will sign an executive order requiring federal contractors to disclose their shareholders’ spending, while also pushing “for federal legislation to require effective public disclosure of political spending.” The candidate, if elected, will also, “promote SEC rulemaking requiring publicly traded companies to disclose all political spending to their shareholders,” the spokesman said.
NetRoots Nation Executive Director Raven Brooks told POLITICO that the presumptive Democratic nominee’s unequivocal stand on this issue, which had been so closely associated with Sanders’ ascendance, is a big deal and somewhat surprising.
“I don’t think there really was any thought or expectation that she would be carrying this issue forward,” Brooks said.
Full Article: Clinton pledges constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United ruling – POLITICO.