The Independent View: MAYDAY.US Announces Support for their First Two Candidates‏

MAYDAY.US, Dr. Lawrence Lessig Founder and Board Chairman, announced the first two candidates the PAC will support, making campaign finance reform a top voting issue in Iowa and New Hampshire.

In the New Hampshire Republican Senate primary, they are supporting two-term State Senator Jim Rubens, the only Republican U.S. Senate candidate in the nation who has openly endorsed fundamental reform to the way campaigns are funded. He's made political reform his central issue. While most Republicans in Congress oppose reform, this is a race where reformers can show their support for the backs of those brave Republicans who buck special interests and do the right thing.

They are opposing former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown. Brown's record shows that he supports Citizens United, opposes federal public financing, and he was the deciding vote against the most bare-minimum disclosure statute. And after agreeing to a "People's Pledge" in his race against Elizabeth Warren in 2012, he refuses to now.

In a key open seat in Iowa's 3rd congressional district, they are supporting Democrat Staci Appel, a former State Senator who sponsored a voter-owned clean elections fund and supports small dollar public funding proposals, like Congressman Sarbanes' Government by the People Act.

They are opposing a DC insider whose largest funding comes from Washington lobbyists, David Young, former Chief of Staff to Sen. Chuck Grassley.

If a candidate for Congress wants to be inoculated from being on their target list, there is an easy way to do so, get on the right side of reform and pledge to support one or more of the fundamental reforms:

1. Government By the People Act - Matching funds, tax credit, vouchers.

2. Fair Elections Now Act - Matching funds.

3. The American Anticorruption Act - Vouchers & lobbying reform.

4. Citizen Involvement in Campaigns Act - Tax credit.

5. Taxation Only With Representation Act - Vouchers.

CLICK HERE for more information on each Act.

For each of them would change the way campaigns are funded, by reducing the influence of special interests.

They created a Contact A Candidate site for you to easily locate and call representatives in your area and urge them to inoculate themselves by supporting reform.

CLICK HERE to see where candidates near you stand on the issue. If your representatives haven't supported any of the reforms, call them, email them, Tweet them, and show up at Town Hall meetings and demand an answer.

Deadline: Candidates have until 5 PM EST next Tuesday, August 5, to inoculate themselves. That means we have one week to urge candidates to do the right thing.