Declaration of Democracy
Our State Legislature is broken for the people of Pennsylvania and fixed on behalf of the ultra rich. Billionaires and private special interests spend money in politics to buy public power to further enrich themselves while we all suffer from policy violence. We demand a government that is responsive to human need and not corporate greed. We demand that the State Legislature make bribery illegal so power is with the people. We demand democracy.
We are MarchOnHarrisburg. We are a non-partisan, volunteer driven, commonwealth- wide movement fighting to get money out of Pennsylvania politics, build democracy, and create a government of, by, and for the people. We lobby and have conversations about why democracy is important, and we ask legislators to take concrete actions to advance bills. We march, and we have marched five times to Harrisburg, totaling 338 miles, and we are marching from Reading to Harrisburg in the spring. And we do nonviolent civil disobedience. We disrupt the flow of corrupting money into politics, we force the encounter with legislators who protect corruption, and we demand that the Legislature outlaw legalized bribery.
We demand democracy so that we can live and our communities can thrive. We demand that our voices should matter more than the false speech of organized money, and our needs must be prioritized over special interest greed. We demand Money Out and People In. We demand that power be with the people, and we are obligated by Article 1, Section 2 of the Pennsylvania State Constitution to make our power real: “All power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority and instituted for their peace, safety, and happiness. For the advancement of these ends they have at all times an inalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform, or abolish their government in such manner as they may think proper.” As long as it is legal to give money, jobs, and gifts to elected officials, power is not with ‘we the people,’ and we all suffer. Government is how we make big decisions for the public good and implement those decisions. But as long as our decision making process is corrupted, we will continue to make bad decisions that hurt Pennsylvanians. It is said that if you do not have a seat at the table, you are probably on the menu, and we are so tired of being on the menu.
Corruption is making us suffer. When billionaires, multinational corporations, and special interests legally pay to play, our elected officials become indifferent to our needs and hopes. We are living under a healthcare system that is not designed to keep us healthy. It is designed to deny us care and funnel as much money as possible into the pockets of a handful of wealthy executives and shareholders.
In Pennsylvania alone, our broken healthcare system closed 26 hospitals across PA in the last five years. One million Pennsylvanians are now trapped in medical debt. Every illness, every injury, every prescription becomes a paperwork-filled nightmare.
Nationwide, this corporate healthcare system causes 186 deaths / day. This is a disgrace. We are made miserable, extorted, and being robbed by an industry that this Legislature protects, aids, and abets in their mission of greed. We see it with our own eyes. We see the reserved parking spot across the street for Independence Blue Cross, we see the campaign cash flowing in from big pharma, we see the armies of former public officials and staff turned UPMC lobbyists armed with unlimited gifts, and we see our legislators being bribed to turn a blind eye to our suffering, misery, and death.
Corruption is killing us and stealing from us. We have an upside-down, regressive tax structure that robs the poor and makes the rich richer. Giant corporations hide their profits in Delaware. Billionaires hire armies of lawyers, lobbyists, and accountants to exploit every loophole imaginable so they can pay nothing while working people pay everything.
Here’s the outrageous truth. When all state and municipal taxes are added up, as a percentage of family income, the poorest 20% pay a tax rate more than 2.5x higher than the richest 1%. We tax the poor, the rich avoid taxes, and there’s never enough money in the budget for the most basic public services and human rights. We see this Legislature act with focus and determination to cut corporate tax rates, ignore Pennsylvanians suffering from oppressive tax burdens, and subsidize the rich with corporate welfare. We live in a system of taxation without representation because money in politics is legal, and our representation has been stolen from us by those with enough money to drown out our voices.
In our corrupt system, the golden rule is, ‘The guy with the gold makes the rules.’ We see this everyday in our rising prices and stagnant wages. One in eight children in Pennsylvania lives in deep poverty, one in two are poor or low income, and one in six children will go hungry this year. 140 million Americans are poor or low income. 34% of Pennsylvanians are poor or low-income. 33% of Pennsylvanians make less than $15/hour, people are trapped and scared to lose social services because of benefit cliffs and endless paperwork. And in the United States of America, the richest country in the history of the world, 800 people a day are dying from poverty.
We suffer from the denial of healthcare, a rigged and unaffordable economy, systemic racism used to divide and conquer and turn neighbor against neighbor, ecological devastation and the poisoning of our air, land, water, and food, underfunded education at all levels, and unaffordable housing.
We have a declining population. We suffer from diseases of despair and mental health epidemics rooted in a system that tramples workers and destroys families so the greediest among us can take more.
It does not have to be this way. We can have our basic needs met, we can have our human rights honored, we can have an affordable and livable existence, we can live in safety and dignity, we can be healthy, we can create real wealth and prosperity, and we can abolish poverty. We can live out our highest and holiest ideals of truth and justice and fairness, and we can build a world through democracy in the image of love.
The promise of democracy is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But we must first tear down corruption for democracy to live. Our systemic suffering is not an accident and it is not a coincidence. The cost of corruption is our suffering. When it is legal to use money to buy political power and shape our society, we all pay the price. Our Legislature cannot serve both money and people. You cannot have “One person one vote” and “one dollar one vote” at the same time. Every special interest has an army of lobbyists, PACs, and Super PACs to make sure that their voice is absolutely heard and the needs of working people are not.
There are countless ways that money gets into politics. Countless ways that private, profit-driven interests are able to buy influence at the expense of the working class, our families, and our communities. While we lobby with reason, emotion, and people power, corporate lobbyists are armed with bribes and misinformation.
We have had thousands of meetings over the last nine years and have identified the five most insidious ways that money buys our politicians, parties, policies, and public discourse in Pennsylvania: Gifts, Campaign Contributions, Secret Super PAC spending, Side Jobs, and the Revolving Door. These problems are bigger than any one politician or party. Both House Democrats and Senate Republicans have failed so far to fight against the onslaught of big money in politics.
Let me tell you something that outrages every Pennsylvanian outside this building. We have no gift ban. There have been 38 gift ban bills introduced in the last 25 years.
In 2019 and in 2021, the House State Government committee passed a gift ban out of committee, but we still have not passed a gift ban into law.
47 other states have a gift ban. But Pennsylvania? Pennsylvania still allows unlimited gifts to public officials. Teachers have a Gift Ban. Police officers have a gift ban. Public employees have gift bans, of course. But high-level public officials like State Legislators have no ban on gifts.
The purpose of these gifts is made clear in our state law. The legal definition of lobbying includes, “Providing any gift… to a State official… for the purpose of advancing the interest of the lobbyist or principal.” This is bribery, this is wrong.
Legislators tell us, ‘Well, we have transparency.’ No, we do not. Lobbyists report giving legislators millions in gifts every year, and they don’t report who they give the gifts to or what they are. Legislators report barely any gifts, and in the tens of thousands of dollars in gifts reported by the Legislature, we see $3,700 golf clubs, super bowl tickets, helicopter and private jet flights, and five star international vacations. And even with perfect transparency, even if every gift were listed down to the penny, gifts from lobbyists to legislators would still be wrong. It would still be corrupting.
We demand a gift ban that is common-sense and prevents lobbyists from giving unlimited anything to elected officials who are supposed to work for us.
Pennsylvania has no limits on campaign contributions. And because of that, candidates and legislators are dependent on the very people who have enough extra cash to bankroll their campaigns. How do these contributions happen? Campaign fundraisers. There are session weeks in Harrisburg where legislators host more campaign fundraisers than they pass bills. The work of governing takes a back seat to the work of soliciting money from wealthy donors.
Campaign fundraising is a non-stop grind where legislators are constantly pressured into obedience by lobbyists and big funders armed with the unlimited campaign contributions. Contributions that can make or break their careers. Contributions that serve as a constant reminder: It’s easier to go along to get along, to be a team player and not get hung out to dry.
It does take some money to run a campaign, and so we need public campaign financing. We need candidates who fundraise from voters, and not from big donors. In Maine, candidates gather enough small donors and then receive a block grant. In Florida, small dollar donations are matched by the state. In Seattle, every resident receives vouchers that they can contribute to candidates to be used to fund the campaign. We demand a system where candidates do not need to satisfy the endless greed of the ultra-rich and their special interest groups to run serious campaigns and win office.
We have no limits on secret, independent political expenditures. Super PACs and 501(c)(4)’s hide their backers, pouring money into attacks on legislators and candidates without accountability. Mailers, paid canvassers, and social media, TV, and radio ads are all designed to poison the public discourse with lies, slander, and divisive nonsense. These attacks are often racist, hateful, and designed to turn Pennsylvanians against our neighbors and destroy what is left of the public square. We need to get secret money out of our elections. Last session, the House passed a bill to ban foreign influenced corporations from independent political expenditures. This needs to pass into law immediately, and we need to go even further. In Maine, they limited contributions to Super PAC’s. In Montana, they are taking on Citizens United, working to fully ban corporations from influencing elections. The Legislature can’t just blame Citizens United and throw its hands in the air, you have the power to act and are choosing to do nothing. We demand swift action to fight the abomination of anybody and any corporation from buying our elections and stealing democracy from Pennsylvanians.
We have no functional limits on side jobs. Legislators are allowed to work and be paid by interests with business before the state. Despite a starting salary of $110,000 a year, which rises with the cost of living unlike the $7.25 minimum wage, incredible health benefits, a great pension, per diems, and reimbursements, our full time State Legislators are allowed to work side jobs. There are committee chairs who work for the industry that their committee oversees. There are legislative leaders working for law firms with wide ranges of clients who are affected by decisions made by the Legislature. Legislators can legally accept unlimited pay and conceal the specific work they are doing from the public and from their colleagues. We need a ban on side jobs so that legislators work for us, and only for us.
We have no functional limits on future revolving door jobs. Legislators and top staffers trade on their experience as public servants to work for the private interests they were previously regulating. Walk into any lobbying firm in Harrisburg, and you’ll find former legislators and top staffers. Too many public officials are wondering about and working toward their next job as lobbyists, where they will receive more money, stay out of the public eye, work less, and have less responsibility. These golden parachute retirement plans from lobbying firms make public officials accountable to the industries they are supposed to be overseeing and not to the public. We demand a real and functional revolving door ban with a substantial and meaningful cooling off period between working for the public and working as a private lobbyist.
As we approach the 250th anniversary of our country and seek to live up to the democratic ideals of our republic, let’s be inspired by the original Pennsylvania State Constitution written in 1776 by Benjamin Franklin, which has no space for money in politics and bans all “Meat, drink, monies, and otherwise.”
According to a Franklin and Marshall poll last year, 93% of Pennsylvanians know and believe that “Money in politics is a threat to democracy.” And yet, we have really high re-election rates. Congress, despite having an approval rating that hovers around 15%, has a reelection rate that is usually over 90%. In another Franklin and Marshall poll, 23% of Pennsylvanians say the government and politicians are the biggest problem facing the state. And yet in 2024, only 9% of state legislative general elections were even somewhat competitive and within 10 points. If we are so unsatisfied, why are our elections so pre-determined, so non-competitive, so rigged?
Our elections are not the accountability tool they need to be. First, it takes money to run for office. Before the election at the ballot box, there is an informal election amongst donors. If a candidate does not win enough “money votes” from campaign donors, then they are written off, never considered a “viable candidate.” Beyond the money-wall, our elections are weakened by gerrymandering, closed primaries, and our lack of ranked choice voting.
Gerrymandering creates non-competitive districts and one-party fiefdoms. Gerrymandering is when politicians and parties pick their voters instead of voters picking our public servants. Gerrymandering creates a nationwide race to the bottom, and the loser is always the voters.
Closed primaries lock out independents and force many Pennsylvanians to belong to a major party that they do not like just so they can vote in a primary election, which is often the only election that has a chance of being competitive.
Our winner-takes-all elections are broken. They force candidates to appeal to a narrow slice of voters, incentivizes negative campaigning, and leaves voters unheard and frustrated. Ranked Choice Voting would fix this, requiring candidates to appeal to a majority of voters, reduce toxic campaigns, and give people more voice and more choice.
We demand an independent redistricting commission. We demand Open Primaries. And we demand Ranked Choice Voting.
We are often told that there is not enough time to do everything listed above, but we see how the Legislature spends its time. We have the largest fulltime State Legislature in the country. This year, the House has been in session 73 days, and the Senate has been in session 49 days. 40 years ago, this Legislature was passing about 450 laws a session. Three sessions ago, this Legislature passed 319 laws, two sessions ago, this Legislature passed 314 laws, and last session only 240 laws. As the Pennsylvania Poor People’s Campaign, we studied every word of every law passed in the 2021-2022 session. We found that 81% of laws passed do not benefit the working class, and only 18% help people in some way.
Our State Legislature is addicted to its own manufactured crisis and hyperpartisan drama. Budgets are delayed. Big, urgent issues are kicked down the road again and again. Entire chunks of the calendar year are declared off limits because there’s an election coming up or there’s an out of state campaign fundraiser to attend.
And when it comes to addressing the corruption that is eating away at our democracy, we are told “there is not enough time”. But we see what you do with your time. We see you spending precious session days debating the state candy and naming bridges. We see you starting session late and ending session early to go solicit money from lobbyists at campaign fundraisers. And in contrast, we see you legislating quickly and competently when it is in the interests of those who write checks at those fundraisers.
Trust is dangerously low among the public, and morale is also low and toxic inside the Legislature itself. It is an internally authoritarian structure. Power is concentrated in the hands of very few. On the first day of session every two years, our legislators abdicate their responsibility to a small number of legislators and give them enormous power.
These powerful legislative leaders tend to be talented fundraisers and they raise campaign money for their colleagues and their party. Top leaders, and the committee chairs they appoint, decide what bills get votes and what bills never see the light of day. Even if a majority of legislators co-sponsor a bill, and the public overwhelmingly supports it, it still could be blocked by leadership and never see the light of day.
Because the power to make laws is so tightly held by a small group within the majority party, most Rank and File legislators don’t focus on legislating. Even a positive focus like constituent services reveals the truth that most legislators are functioning more like the executive branch than like lawmakers, carrying out the law rather than writing it.
The State Legislature is a dysfunctional workplace, where everyone both inside and across PA is held hostage to manufactured crises, hyperpartisan nonsense, and the whims and desires of big money special interests who always seem to win at the end of the day. We demand democracy. We demand an end to legalized, normalized, systemic corruption.
We demand elections that reflect the will of a majority of voters. We demand that power be with the people, so we can build a world that benefits everybody, not just the wealthy few. Until we get money out of politics and make our elections meaningful, we can not solve any of the deep and abiding problems we face in our state.
Legislators who came here with the best of intentions will not achieve their goals. Even the wisest and the most righteous are rendered indifferent in a corrupt system, as it is written in Deuteronomy Chapter 16, “Do not take a bribe, because a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and distorts the words of the righteous.” We will continue to spiral downward in decline, and people will continue to suffer and get hurt from the increasing violence of our policies and systems.
We demand a gift ban, campaign contribution limits, public campaign financing, bans on Super PACs, a ban on side jobs, and the closing of the revolving door. We demand an end to gerrymandering, open primaries, and ranked-choice voting, and we demand House and Senate rules that empower all legislators.
We demand that our State Legislature turn away from big money and turn toward the people with love. We demand the democracy we need to build a better Pennsylvania, where our communities survive and thrive. We demand that our representatives and senators, the people we give so much power and trust, step forward, act with courage, and be the champions and heroes that democracy and all of our futures demand at this moment.
We do not accept excuses. Our patience is worn out. We have dealt with four Speakers, three Senate Presidents, six combined Majority Leaders, and 15 combined House and Senate Majority and Minority Committee Chairs. We have suffered through broken promises from every one of those positions at some point over the last nine years. We are tired of being told that it takes time, or now isn’t the time, or that you just need some more time. We are tired of being blamed by a small number of legislators who actively work against our bills and who tell us that it is offensive and mean to suggest that money influences politics. We are tired of the gaslighting, and being told that somehow Pennsylvania State Legislators are above being influenced by an industry of lobbyists whose job is to influence them, and they are armed with legal gifts, campaign cash, jobs, and the threat or reward of Super PAC spending. We are tired of being told that our intensity and passion are the reason why the Legislature doesn’t act, and we are tired of this Legislature pretending that indifference and nonresponsiveness to the people is somehow a virtue.
We are tired of leadership hiding behind the rank and file, and we are tired of the rank and file hiding behind the leadership. We are tired of the House hiding behind the Senate and the Senate hiding behind the House. We are tired of everyone blaming everyone but themselves, so nobody ends up doing anything, and we all suffer.
We expect every legislator to fight. This moment in history requires you to fight for democracy. We accept no more excuses. We expect you to bang down the doors of your leadership, and we expect discharge petitions, special orders of business, and any other parliamentary maneuver that advances our bills past gatekeepers. We expect the level of fight demonstrated by the State House in 1921, when 130 State Representatives joined together to overthrow their leadership team and pass a wave of pro-labor and anti-corruption laws that brought kids out of the mines and Pennsylvania into the 20th century. Every legislator has a clear choice to make: Are you courageously fighting for the people or are you a coward before big money and party bosses?
We will do our part as the people of Pennsylvania to chase the bribers out and rededicate our State Capitol from the ‘Dome of Corruption’ to the ‘People’s House.’ We will continue organizing and developing leaders across PA. We will make our State Legislators deal with corruption at every turn. We will force the encounter, disrupt the flow of money into politics, and give you no rest until we have peace and democracy. We will educate candidates to knock out any legislator who is not fighting for democracy. And perhaps what Pennsylvania truly needs is another constitutional convention like in the 1960’s when no lobbyists or legislators were allowed in the room.
We are suffering deeply from a political system dominated by a small number of people with a lot of concentrated money and power. And we are in love with the promise of democracy. We have the policy solutions to solve our problems and create systems that are just and fair. We can have healthcare, we can end hunger, poverty, homelessness, and the pervasive scarcity and fear baked into our society. We can come together to solve our problems instead of being divided, conquered, and turned against our neighbors. We can make good decisions as a Commonwealth, but only if our Legislators turn away from big money and turn toward the people.
We do not need to live in a system of corruption and hyperpartisanship. Other states put our corruption to shame and show that a better way is possible. We do not need to suffer from policy violence, we can legislate from a place of love for our neighbors and ourselves. The greed of billionaires and big money interests does not need to outweigh the concerns of constituents, we can have a government that represents our needs. ‘Politician’ and ‘politics’ do not need to be such bad, dirty, and dishonorable words. We all can, and do, deserve so much better. When we get money out of politics, when we build elections and democratic systems that are accountable to voters, and when we bring democracy into the State Legislature itself, we will come together and build the Pennsylvania that we all deserve.