The Commission on Federal Election Reform is co-chaired by former US President Jimmy Carter and James A. Baker, III. It is a private, blue-ribbon commission created by President Carter in the aftermath of the 2004 Election. The twenty-one distinguished members of the Commission are leaders from the major political parties, academics and civic leaders from non-partisan groups. The commission was established to spend the next six months examining the state of the electoral process in the United States and to offer recommendations on improving it.
Some of the most prominent commissioners include Lee H. Hamilton, former Congressman and 9/11 Commission vice-chair; Tom Daschle, former Senate minority leader; Bob Michel, former House Minority leader; and Betty Castor, former Florida Superintendent of Public Instruction, and 2004 Democratic Senate nominee.
Famous quotes containing the words commission, federal, election and/or reform:
“Yesterday the Electoral Commission decided not to go behind the papers filed with the Vice-President in the case of Florida.... I read the arguments in the Congressional Record and can’t see how lawyers can differ on the question. But the decision is by a strictly party vote—eight Republicans against seven Democrats! It shows the strength of party ties.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“Prestige is the shadow of money and power. Where these are, there it is. Like the national market for soap or automobiles and the enlarged arena of federal power, the national cash-in area for prestige has grown, slowly being consolidated into a truly national system.”
—C. Wright Mills (1916–1962)
“Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“He reckoned a body could reform the old man with a shot-gun, maybe, but he didn’t know no other way.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)