Lawmakers: Members of Congress must change the campaign finance culture

Two lawmakers -- a Republican and a Democrat -- said Monday that Congress should pass of a bill that would prohibit members of Congress or candidates from personally soliciting money for their campaigns.

The so-called Stop Act would leave fund-raising to a candidate's campaign financial apparatus.

Both Rep. David Jolly, R-Fla., and Rep. Rick Nolan, D-Minn., acknowledged at a National Press Club Newsmaker on Monday that they face a tough road ahead in winning passage.

“We all know it takes money to run for office,” said Club President Thomas Burr, who presided.

As of now, the proposal has just three Democratic and five Republican co-sponsors..

"Where is Donald Trump on this issue? Jolly asked. "Where is Bernie Sanders on the Stop Act?"

In addition to Stop Act, Nolan, and Jolly to a degree, support reversal of the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision that opened the floodgates to almost unlimited fundraising. Jolly said he would prefer to see the reversal handled through congressional action.

"The great political scandal of our time is that members of Congress come to town three days a week and spend much of the time raising money," said Jolly, who has taken the pledge not to raise funds himself in his current campaign for the U.S. Senate.

Nolan, who served three terms in the House in the 1970s, said it's hard to get colleagues to change the way they do politics now. When colleagues are approached for support, Jolly said, "you can almost see the fear in their eyes."

Nolan acknowledged, though, that when Congress is not in session, "I spend considerable time raising money."

Nolan said spending 20 to 30 hours a week "dialing for dollars," plus another 10 hours in other fundraising, plus the 14 hours for a round-trip back to his district -- a total of 54 hours, leaves "no time to govern."

Nolan said the cost of a campaign and the time required for fund-raising is discouraging people from running for election or reelection. He said they take the view, "I don't want to go to Washington and become a mid-level telemarketer."

Jolly said that 'second grade math" shows that for some, the cost of a campaign means raising $18,000 a day.

Both Jolly and Nolan said the time spent fundraising has contributed to the failure of Congress to deal with immigration reform, tax reform, climate change, and changes to "Obamacare."