Zephyr Teachout

“Dependence on private money to run campaigns causes pain to Republicans and Democrats alike - and business owners. It's time we did something about it. And public financing of elections should be the first step.”

“To be fair, money and politics never work in a directly straight line.”

“Anti-corruption is a core constitutional value. It always has been.”

“The structure of private campaign finance has essentially pre-corrupted our politicians, so that they can't even recognize explicit bribery because it feels the same as what they do every day.”

“Every district is going to be different, but if you wanted me to give advice to those candidates: Run your own campaign, the DCCC does not run your campaign. Figure out ways to raise money from small-dollar donors, and put some real energy into that because that will give you freedom to say no to big donors.”

“I don't think we should reduce the corporate tax rate.”

“Quid pro quo has an interesting history. It's originally a contract law term, not a criminal bribery term.”

“A lot of organizations have pointed out that under public financing systems, you see a lot more candidates of color and a lot more women. But you also see the power base behind these candidates is more representative and far less exclusively wealthy.”

“One of the things I care about a lot is public financing in elections.”

“I hope that we increasingly shift power to local governments.”

“You build massive databases, you learn everything you can about the people in those databases, you figure out exactly how they can be useful to your campaign, and you ask them to donate money, door-knock, the virtual equivalent of being a sort of army of stamp lickers.”

“In the absence of relative equality - quid pro quo - a court might question whether there was an actual contract. If I give you a dollar, and you give me a mansion, our contract would lack quid pro quo.”

“New York has really thrived both upstate and downstate when there are tens of thousands of small businesses all representing their different creative impulses.”

“Google has established a pattern of lobbying and threatening to acquire power. It has reached a dangerous point common to many monarchs: The moment where it no longer wants to allow dissent.”

“As attorney general, I would work with my colleagues in other states to launch a major antitrust investigation to look into the ways in which Facebook and Google are wielding and may be abusing their duopoly powers.”

“It is an honor to join 'The Nation's esteemed editorial board.”

“We, as lawyers, must point out that unrestrained power is almost always abusive.”

“One of the more important things the Bernie Sanders campaign did is reach people who are political but not electorally political. They're political in either non-profits or community groups, but didn't see how important it was to get involved in electoral politics.”

“Parties are fun, but they don't create community.”

“We fought a revolution to free ourselves from arbitrary power and the whims of a monarch.”