Help the Honest Politician Crash the Most Expensive Senate Race of All Time

The “honest politician” we’ve all been waiting for!

America’s biggest problems are going unsolved because our government is overrun by Big Money special interests and lobbyists. The amount of money corrupting our political system is at an all time high, so we’re setting out to make “fixing the corruption” the #1 issue in America.

Enter, Gil Fulbright.

Gil is a satirical Senate candidate — an “honest politician” who will openly take any position on any issue… for the right price. We’re running Gil for Senate in Kentucky during the most expensive Senate Race in American history between Senator Mitch McConnell and challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes.

Why Kentucky?
The race between McConnell and Grimes is on pace to cost an unprecedented $100 million. Over three quarters of both candidate’s money is coming from outside of Kentucky, including a who’s who of big money special interests. When it costs that much to win an election, the candidates become dependent on their funders, not on the people they’re supposed to represent. As a result, the issues that matter to the people go unsolved.

Because control of the Senate could come down to the Kentucky race, the national news media will be watching; it’s the perfect opportunity to steer the conversation away from the usual partisan grandstanding, and change the conversation to money’s stranglehold on American governance — and how to fix it.

Kentucky isn’t an isolated case. The cost of running for office has exploded in recent years, pushing politicians in both parties to spend more time raising money from special interests and lobbyists, and less time working for the people they’re supposed to represent.

The plan
We’re going to use Gil’s presence in the Kentucky race as a launchpad into a major national campaign. He’ll crash campaign events, run “honest political ads” on TV and the radio, and do whatever it takes to get the whole country talking about money in politics corruption. We’re renting a campaign bus, slapping Gil’s beautiful face on it, and hitting the campaign trail to bring some much-needed honesty to one of the most expensive Senate campaigns in American history.

What will this actually accomplish?
It’s time to stop doing business as usual, change the national conversation and start demanding new laws to defend the people’s government from Big Money corruption. Americans pay the price for our corrupt political system every day. From the economy to the environment, taxes to government waste, it’s the root cause of nearly every major problem we face. Yet the press continues to treat the problem as a fringe, “wonky” issue. Gil’s campaign is designed to help change that. Satire has worked before, and it can work again. A recent study found that Comedy Central’s Colbert Report has done more to raise the profile of money’s corrupting influence than any other “news” source. A well-executed satirical campaign can generate unprecedented national attention for one of the most important issues of our time, and educate millions of Americans about the corruption that’s paralyzing our political system.

We will also drive hundreds of thousands to join the growing movement to pass tough new anti-corruption laws and get our country back on track. Our non-partisan, non-profit campaign, Represent.Us, is already more than 450,000 people strong and has reached over 6 million Americans.

Where Will My Money Go?
We’ve got big plans for old Gil. We need to raise $20,000 in order to:

Rent a campaign bus – With Gil’s face on it, of course. The bus will serve as headquarters for Gil and our volunteers and help them tail the McConnell and Grimes campaigns.

Launch Gil’s campaign – Fund Gil’s campaign launch at one of Kentucky’s most well-known political events.

Put “Honest Political Ads” on the air – We’ll support Gil’s campaign with a modest TV, Radio and Internet ad-buy. The more money we raise, the more attention we can draw to this issue.

FAQs
“Who are you people?”

We’re Represent.Us — a non-partisan, nonprofit, grassroots campaign working to end the culture of legalized corruption that has come to define modern politics.

We use local politics, viral media and grassroots organizing to push for an overhaul of campaign finance, strict lobbying and conflict of interest laws, and an end to secret political money. You can learn more about who we are and what we do at http://represent.us, and read up on the policy changes we support at http://anticorruptionact.org.

“Will Gil take votes from Grimes or McConnell?”
Nope! Gil Fulbright is a purely satirical candidate. “Gil Fulbright” isn’t a real person, and his name will not appear on the ballot.

“Is this a Republican thing or a Democrat thing?”
It’s neither. We are a strictly non-partisan movement, and our membership consists of everyone from progressives to Tea Party conservatives. Confronting the kind of systemic corruption that’s paralyzing our government will require a massive movement — That means putting partisan differences aside and focusing on where we agree.

*See the campaign video here http://youtu.be/wz_V4lRdtjo

Learn more here https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-the-honest-politician-crash-the-most-expensive-senate-race-of-all-time