Hillary Clinton Backs Constitutional Amendment on Campaign Money
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Michael B. Thomas/AFP/Getty Images(MONTICELLO, Iowa) — Hillary Clinton could have one of the best-funded campaigns in history, but she wants to get so-called dark money out of politics altogether.
To that end, Clinton says she supports a constitutional amendment barring it.
“We need to fix our dysfunctional political system and get unaccountable money out of it once and for all, even if that takes a constitutional amendment,” Clinton said at the first event of her 2016 presidential run, speaking to students and teachers at Kirkwood Community College in Monticello, Iowa.
Clinton has said similar things in the past–just not as strongly. In 2014, for instance, she said she would consider such a measure, MSNBC reported at the time.
The Democratic frontrunner is expected to be supported in her bid by Priorities USA Action, the super PAC that helped President Obama defeat Mitt Romney in 2012. While super PAC support may seem contradictory with Clinton’s complaint against political money, it isn’t: Super PACs disclose their donors and are not considered “unaccountable” in the same way as nonprofit 501(c)(4) groups, which can also take in unlimited donations from people and corporations, but which do not disclose their sources of money.
Clinton also backed President Obama’s call for free community college.
“I fully support President Obama’s plan to make community college free,” Clinton said.
The community-college roundtable discussion was the first of what Clinton’s campaign has described as a series of small, intimate events in Iowa, where the former secretary of State will listen to voters on an array of issues.
Sitting at the head of several folding tables, Clinton asked the small group of attendees about their experiences as students paying tuition and planning their lives, and as educators seeking to help students along the way.
After officially announcing her candidacy this week, Clinton traveled to Iowa in a van she dubbed “Scooby,” making a surprise stop at Chipotle along the way. Her campaign has not yet publicly disclosed a full list of the events she’ll attend while she’s in the state.
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