In “Don’t pump more money into politics,” a July 11 op-ed for The Detroit News, former U.S. Congressman and Ford School lecturer Joe Schwarz argues that dark money “is undermining the trust Americans have in our government and hindering our ability to create public policy that puts the needs of the people first.”
Elected leaders in Michigan, writes Schwarz of a newly introduced bill before the Michigan Senate, “are recklessly looking to open the floodgates even further.” The bill, he writes, would eliminate “state campaign contribution limits and allow Super PACs to get involved in state referenda and ballot initiatives….”
Schwarz is a former U.S. Congressional Representative (R-MI) and Michigan State Senator (1997 - 2002). A moderate Republican, Schwarz says he is “disappointed to see leaders from my own party looking to further weaken basic expectations of transparency and accountability.”
Dr. John J.H. (Joe) Schwarz is an intermittent lecturer at the Ford School. For more on his career and accomplishments, read "The Last Word with Joe Schwarz" or see the nine-part oral history (July 2016) produced by the Michigan Political History Society.