Dear Reps. Rick Larsen and Dave Paul,

Congratulations! You have each won reelection. Now your real work begins. For each of you in Congress and with federal legislation, Rep. Larsen and for you in Washington state, Rep. Paul, your campaign victories are poster child cases for the drastic changes needed in campaign finance laws.

Rep. Larsen, you return to the nation’s capital having spent $1.3 million to get re-elected. Wow! You spent about fifty-fve cents for each of the over 700,000 people living in District 2.

Rep. Paul, you raised and spent close to $450,000 this year. That is $3 for every resident in your district.

That is after a 2018 election requiring Rep. Paul to raise over $200,000. That is exhausting work sending us postcards and radio ads that constituents do not want and did not ask for. You surely wish you did not have to raise the money for them or have to send them. Take the initiative now to break those bonds.

Whether it is various permutations of Democratic Party organizations, unions, airlines or individuals, the tremendous amount of effort and time, along with all that money that all parties are committing to securing your elections and, thus, your very close attention to their interests, does not make you better legislators. You know what the distraction and time spent raising funds is and each of you can speak to the slimy feeling engendered by the attempted greasing of palms that takes place.

And then there are the “independent expenditures” over which you have no control but whose staffs and consultants you must surely have at least passing relationships with.

Each of these is a true cesspool of politics – you know it, editors and citizens can say it. If you did not know, learn this: European countries outlaw the vast array of private expenditures that drown you as well as the American electorate. Independent international organizations classify American electioneering as propaganda, a term that has more to do with taking apart the truth than propagating it.

Your sense of fair play tells you you have insurmountable advantages for 2022. But there are better paths for getting elected.

Gentlemen, please step up and lead to get private monies out of politics. Neither of you want to spend your time on the phone and pressing the flesh – well in the old day – this way. Both of you would rather legislate.

That starts with visions, goals and collaboration. Join forces with fellow legislators and citizen advocates already pushing for public financing. Get private monies out of public elections.

Rep. Larsen, in your pursuit of public funding you will need to focus attention anew on the terrible Supreme Court decision equating unlimited private spending with free speech. If that decision cannot be overturned, legislation you champion will create new law free of the Court’s heavy bias toward wealth and power.

Rep. Paul, your leadership role in changing state law prohibiting the use of public funds to finance political campaigns for state offices is needed to move Washington elections into the bright light of the twenty-first century. Gather your colleagues who are equally disgusted with all the baggage carried in the efforts of privately raising campaign funds.

Each of you are experts at the fundraising that plagues our politics. Each of you can become heroes to your constituents and to the nation and thus our beautiful state, crafting legacies that, more than your fundraising prowess, will ensure your reelections from grateful citizens.

I pledge to assist you in all ways this newspaper can. This is a cause that will afflict the comfortable and comfort the rest of us.

I am all in. Please join me.

Let’s talk.

Sincerely,

Ken Stern