{"id":8117,"date":"2019-05-15T22:12:02","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T22:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elsemanarioonl.wpengine.com\/?p=8117"},"modified":"2019-05-15T22:12:02","modified_gmt":"2019-05-15T22:12:02","slug":"rejecting-corporate-pac-money-for-new-mexicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elsemanarioonline.com\/es\/rejecting-corporate-pac-money-for-new-mexicans\/","title":{"rendered":"Rejecting Corporate PAC Money for New Mexicans"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nBen Ray Luj\u00e1n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the start of the last Congress, one of the first votes House Republicans took was on a bill designed to unravel protections for workers exposed to chemicals like beryllium. Beryllium is one of the chemicals that poisoned my father\u2019s lungs and caused his cancer.<\/p>\n

Watching House Republicans vote against the health and safety needs of people like my father in order to placate special interests left me sick.<\/p>\n

That first vote is indicative of the Republican party. Last Congress, House Republicans raised taxes on and stripped health care from working Americans all to satisfy their special interest donors.<\/p>\n

Watching House Republicans put the interests of big corporations over hard-working Americans was the reason I worked so hard, as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee last year, to elect a Democratic majority \u2013 a majority that would put people like my father and my constituents first.<\/p>\n

And of this new majority, dozens of candidates \u2013 from districts across the country \u2013 recognized that in order to change Washington, they\u2019d have to change how we elect the people who serve there. These candidates built campaigns powered by people, not corporations.<\/p>\n

It worked, and they won. And now House Democrats \u2013 including the most diverse class of freshmen in history \u2013 have taken concrete actions to bolster working women and men. Our first major legislative vote: The For the People Act, a sweeping campaign finance package that would drastically curb the influence of big money in politics.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve spent more than a decade in public service speaking truth to power on behalf of New Mexican families and communities that haven\u2019t always had a voice in government. I\u2019ve always put people first.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The pride I felt watching that legislation, which I helped shepherd, pass in the House was matched only by the anger I felt when Mitch McConnell announced it was dead-on-arrival in the U.S. Senate. That\u2019s become a common refrain from McConnell \u2013 whose dubbed himself the \u201cGrim Reaper\u201d for the good legislation we\u2019re championing in the House.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of the reasons I\u2019m running for Senate. McConnell\u2019s refusal to address our broken campaign finance system is stifling the voices of the American people.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not how it\u2019s supposed to work. That\u2019s never been my approach to governing \u2013 it\u2019s just not the New M\u00e9xico way. In New M\u00e9xico, we work together for the good of the community. It\u2019s how I\u2019ve spent my time in Congress and how I\u2019ll continue to work in the U.S. Senate. Whether that means securing millions of dollars in opioid treatment funding, protecting the 300,000 New Mexicans with pre-existing conditions, or introducing an ambitious plan to cut greenhouse gases by 60 percent \u2013 my work is always for the people.<\/p>\n

Today, I\u2019m taking that advocacy a step further: my campaign for the U.S. Senate will not accept corporate PAC money.<\/p>\n

This decision is at the core of the kind of campaign I\u2019m running. A campaign run on New Mexican values that is built by the people, not corporations.<\/p>\n

It will be a campaign that tackles the most important issues that New Mexicans care about.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve spent more than a decade in public service speaking truth to power on behalf of New Mexican families and communities that haven\u2019t always had a voice in government. I\u2019ve always put people first. I\u2019ve fought to expand health care, solve the climate crisis, lower prescription drug prices, and pass monumental campaign finance reform. And I will work to earn your support to continue fighting on your behalf in the U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n is a Democratic congressman representing the Third Congressional District<\/em>. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read More New Mexico Commentary: ELSEMANARIONEWMEXICO.COM<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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