Review Wrong: No PIRG Conflict
 
To the Editor:

The article about campaign finance reform and the McCain-Feingold Bill (“Funds Go Softly into the Night” by Alex Parker) in last week’s Review gave the impression that there is an “internal conflict” with Ohio PIRG. [First-year] Ben Newhouse’s comments were misrepresented in the article. He was referring to a continuing discussion between members of the Oberlin Chapter of Ohio PIRG about the bill and the amendment that raises the hard money contribution limits from $1,000 to $2,000. The amendment significantly weakens the bill, a fact that is very disturbing to everyone concerned with establishing strong legislation regulating campaign finance reform. Throughout the debate on the Senate floor about the McCain-Feingold bill, there was discussion and dialogue at Ohio PIRG meetings and on our e-mail list. This dialogue in no way qualifies as “internal conflict” within the organization. Instead, it exemplifies the way that we engage very seriously with the issues that we work on.
The decision to withdraw organizational support for the McCain-Feingold Bill was made by the US PIRG Democracy Team and a coalition of other national public interest groups as a very strong statement against allowing more big money into our political system.

–Ellen R. Montgomery
College senior

–Ben Newhouse
College first-year

Ohio PIRG members