The primary reason that I am running for Congress is that I think we need to fundamentally change how our democracy works. If we are going to solve the serious problems facing society, in the timeframes that we need to solve them, then I think we need to change “how” we solve problems.
That said, my campaign has three main pillars that are focused on improving our democracy:
- Making draft legislation open source,
- Expanding representation by uncapping the size of the House of Representatives, and
- Changing campaign financing.
The main idea that I am running to advance is the idea that we can improve our democracy by making draft legislation “open source.” In other words, I am running on the pledge that if I am elected, I will make my office’s draft legislation open source so that anyone could apply their insights towards solving legislative problems with my office and through the process bring an unprecedented level of transparency to lawmaking. No politician has ever made their draft legislation open source, but we have the tools to engender greater collaboration between representatives and constituents.
The next item on the list (and related to the first) is uncapping the size of Congress. In 1929, Congress capped the size of the House of Representatives at 435 members. Since then, the population of the United States has more than tripled and the average size of a congressional district is now about 758,000 people (and growing). For comparison, America’s first Congress had about 60,000 people per district and the Constitution prescribed that there should be no more than 1 representative per 30,000 individuals. Moreover, America has the highest representation ratio of all the OECD nations. The OECD country with the next highest representation ratio is Japan with 1 lawmaker for every 272,000 people, and many OECD nations have representation ratios of less than 1 lawmaker per 100,000 people.
With that in mind, uncapping the size of the House of Representatives would have many positive impacts on our democracy, including:
- Increasing the productivity of the House by allowing for the creation of more committees,
- Increasing diversity and reducing the rural (and racial) bias built into Congress,
- Increasing turnover and creating more space for fresh perspectives, and
- Improving constituent engagement.
The third pillar of my campaign is changing our campaign financing system. In short, we need to remove corporate money from our elections and cut out the incentives that distort political commitments and prevent politicians from advancing solutions that are in the best interest of everyone.
That said, beyond empowering constituents and making government work for everyone, I am committed to advancing progressive solutions to problems in areas including:
- Reining in executive powers,
- Reducing inequality,
- Strengthening labor laws and enforcement,
- Fostering better markets,
- Expanding Social Security,
- Providing healthcare for everyone,
- Improving our education system and addressing the student debt crisis,
- Ameliorating the housing crisis and expanding affordable housing,
- Reducing mass incarceration,
- Empowering immigrants and expanding paths to citizenship,
- Transforming the energy grid to rely on clean energy solutions and decentralized microgrids, and
- Protecting the environment and fighting climate change.
