Teachout gives teach-in about political corruption

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Zephyr Teachout, who launched a surprisingly strong challenge to Gov. Andrew Cuomo last year, spoke Oct. 15 at Manhattan College, where she discussed campaign finance law and the history of political corruption. 

“Corruption played this foundational role in the creation of our constitution,” explained Ms. Teachout, who won 35.5 percent of the popular vote on the Working Families Party line.

“I’m driven by real anger at inequality…  and I’m also driven by a real deep sense of patriotism,” she told an audience of students and activists at the event, co-sponsored by the grassroots political club Northwest Bronx for Change. “For me, I think of it as a kind of Langston Hughes patriotism.”

“He says, ‘I demand that we have an America that lives up to its best dream while recognizing that that America has never happened,’” Ms. Teachout continued. “And so that’s what I want to do when I talk about corruption.”

Ms. Teachout, who teaches constitutional and property law at Fordham University’s law school, cited the 1976 Supreme Court case of Buckley v. Valleo as a critical turning point in fundraising for elections. The ruling struck down portions of 1971’s Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA), including limits on how much money can be spent on a campaign. She said the effects of the ruling became evident in the 1980s and 1990s and redefined what it meant to run for office. A lack of legislation against corporate spending in elections and the influence of the 1 percent has led to politicians spending the majority of their time fundraising, she claimed.

Ms. Teachout said the system of private financing positioned people less as ends and more as means.

She added that participating in this system during her campaign turned her into a “more transactional person in some ways.”

Zephyr Teachout, Manhattan College, campaign financing, public financing, Northwest Bronx for Change
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