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:
“Children cannot eat rhetoric and they cannot be sheltered by commissions. I don’t want to see another commission that studies the needs of kids. We need to help them.”
—Marian Wright Edelman (20th century)
“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)
“In the past, as now, Haiti’s curse has been her politicians. There are still too many men of influence in the country who believe that a national election is a mandate from the people to build themselves a big new house in Petionville and Kenscoff and a trip to Paris.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake; and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)