Ben Wilcox Quotes (25 Quotes)

It's kind of typical campaign finance in Florida. You find these wealthy special interests who are giving to committees and candidates, people with power to help them. . . . They're doing it as an investment, hoping for a return on their investment.

It speaks to the issue of money and politics. It appears they're voting one way to please one group of people and changing that vote in hopes of getting campaign contributions later on.

The most realistic situation could be is that potential challengers don't see the possibility of winning due to the campaign war chests that the incumbents build up.

The whole idea behind public financing was to hold down the cost of campaigns and encourage more people to participate. Now they've escalated campaign fund-raising to levels we've never seen.

Consumers aren't able to make significant campaign contributions - and certainly not in that league.

I think that's where you see the real use of money to buy influence because in this case, they're not even principled enough to be supporting one candidate over another. They just want to have access and influence with whoever wins. They're just basically hedging their bets.

This exceptional event will help fund research in the battle against cancer. Each year more than a hundred racers come out and raise more than 20,000 in just one day.

I can see a potential for abuse.

It's kind of troublesome. They're getting around the intent of the law to require that parties and committee disclose what they're spending their money on.

It's going to come down to however much Senator Lee is willing to make this a top priority. It's a tough issue to pass in an election year. But every sign I've seen, Senator Lee is committed to making it a priority.

It is definitely still an avenue for lobbyists and special interests to buy access and influence.

If it's being done just to hide their real vote, I don't think that's the way to go. I find it kind of hard to imagine that there would be that many people that would be fooled by it.

It's where the real business in Tallahassee gets transacted.

It's not a partisan issue, it's a power issue - who's in charge at the time.

The system has basically been rigged to protect incumbents and discourage competition.

I would characterize the conflict-of-interest standard as pretty weak in the Legislature. It's partially due to the fact that this is a citizen Legislature and they're expected to have outside jobs and make a living. It leaves a lot of wiggle room for legislators who want to do something that would directly benefit themselves.

I think it would be significant campaign finance reform. It would be a serious attempt to deal with what we believe is the most common avenue for special interest contributions.

The court has given us a road map on how to construct an initiative that would be approved.

When the legislature refuses to act on an issue, citizens need to have some way to go around the legislature.

When voters go into the voting booth and they read what's being proposed, it's going to be like common sense to them. It's a basic conflict of interest for legislators to draw their own districts.

It's a loss for the voters of Florida.

I just don't think businesses spend money like that just in the interest of good government and helping people get their ideas out. I think they're looking for a return on their investment. They're shopping in this case for a governor -- somebody willing to give them access.

We had hoped that the people of Florida would have an opportunity to speak on this question, whether they want self-interested politicians drawing their own districts. We just have to go back to the drawing board.

I think we've seen in this session and in past sessions a kind of an arrogance from the legislature that they know best rather than the people. They don't trust the people to make decisions in their own interest.

The key requirement is that any plan that passes this commission has to pass by ten votes, so you're going to have to have consensus among all these members of the commission for a plan to pass.