Q: How will you use your public office to end corporate constitutional rights and big money in politics?
A: Our greatest roadblock is the interpretation by the U.S. Supreme Court in Citizens United, which must be changed by altering the makeup of the court or by an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. We should pursue both avenues of change.

As a Representative in the Minnesota House, I would:
Fight to maintain strict limits on state campaign donations and keep loopholes closed.
Promote strengthening disclosure laws for so-called “independent” entities, requiring public notice of all contributors and contributions before expenditures are made.
Support a Minnesota House resolution calling on Congress to amend the U.S. Constitution to clarify that corporations are not citizens and therefore have no inherent constitutional rights, supplemented by authority of Congress to regulate campaign financing.

I’m also concerned that corporate interests exercise undue influence in state agencies charged with regulating them. I’d ask the Legislative Auditor to review decision-making processes of regulatory agencies to make them more accountable to the public and less subject to corporate influence.

There’s no question that corporate influence, particularly that of big business, has become pervasive in recent decades and now drowns out the voices of real people. My goal is to ensure that underrepresented communities have a voice in all the issues that affect them, whether it’s health care, criminal or environmental justice, decent jobs, affordable housing, or our climate crisis. Fixing the corporate stranglehold over our Legislature and state policy development is key to having their voices heard and achieving the changes we need.