As the president of Democracy Matters — a non-partisan, student organization on campus dedicated to getting big, private money out of politics — I have been sorely disappointed by Cornell students’ disinterest in the issue of campaign financing. As we all know, right now, candidates for political office raise money — LOTS of money — by soliciting donations, then use that money to run expensive campaigns in which they appeal to voters by making promises. But, in order to raise enough money to pay for these campaigns and make these promises, candidates must appeal to wealthy individuals and big businesses. This means that, at the same time as candidates are using their donations to pay for the campaigns that promise tax breaks for the poor or more stringent environmental legislation, they are “earning” those donations by making promises to their donors. Promises that often conflict with the promises they are making to voters. Then, once elected, politicians must begin almost immediately to start fundraising again, which means doing favors for those big donors who helped them in the past, to ensure future financial support and re-election. In fact, politicians report spending at least 1/3 of their time in office fundraising instead of legislating!

So, how much money are we really talking about? It’s been estimated that, by elections next November, the 2008 presidential race will have cost $1 billion. One billion dollars. This means that presidential nominees will need to raise about $500 million each in order to run competitive campaigns. Right now, candidates have already raised over $420 million and we haven’t even finished primaries yet.

Hillary Clinton alone has already raised over $90 million, making her the overall leader in donations received. Barack Obama comes next with over $80 million. Unfortunately, since only one candidate can win, a lot of money goes towards losing campaigns as well. Mitt Romney, for example, raised $62 million before he dropped out of the presidential primary.

Like I said, most of this money is coming from large corporations who do not have our — that’s voters’ — best interests in mind. For example, have you noticed that gas now costs over $3.30 per gallon? Well, the oil and gas industries have donated well over $1 million to several presidential candidates. In return for their dollars, these companies gain political access and enhance the power that their opinions will yield during their beneficiaries’ tenure in office. So in effect, what they have bought with their donations is the ability to keep earning record-breaking profits with sky-high gas prices over the next four years, and thus to keep making these massive donations. It’s a perpetual cycle and makes me seriously consider selling my car and taking up biking.

Given that many of us are students here in Ithaca, let’s also consider donations from the education industry and the commercial banks that are responsible for the cost of our student loans. The education industry has donated over $2 million to Barack Obama alone, and over $1 million to Clinton. Commercial banks — or, rather, those who work for them — have donated only slightly less, with Clinton and Obama again receiving the largest sums at over $9 and $800,000 respectively. Mitt Romney has similarly received just over $600,000, and Giuliani has received just under this amount.

Now let me venture to guess that neither the price of education nor the cost of student loans will be dropping any time soon, no matter who is elected next fall. Thank goodness it’s almost graduation.

So the problem isn’t just who we elect, but how we elect them. If all of these big, industrial dollars were removed from elections, candidates would have to appeal to voters for support, rather than to large donors. In other words, elected officials of all levels would become aware of, and responsive to, their voters’ needs, instead of the weight of their wallets.

This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t all be frantically applying for absentee ballots right now, but that we should also be filling out petitions to change the system so that our votes will carry more weight. We should be asking ourselves why we are consistently voting for “the lesser of two evils” instead of a candidate who we really want. And why we seem content to continue on this path when a publicly funded election process would be so easy to achieve. In fact, one has already been proposed in the Senate and is widely supported. It’s a bi-partisan bill supported by a variety of Republican and Democratic senators, not to mention three fourths of voters!

So come on, Cornell, rock the vote! But do it for a clean candidate — one who works for you, not for some corporation and its CEO.

Abby Hemenway is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences and president of Cornell’s chapter of Democracy matters. She can be contacted at ah329@cornell.edu. Guest Room appears periodically. Send inquiries and submissions to opinion@cornellsun.com