1. United States
2. N.J.
3. Letter

Good morning. There’s an old joke about how candidates for government positions should have to wear their sponsors on their jackets like NASCAR drivers so the public knows who they really plan to serve. This has never been less funny than today. Lobbying has to stop. Extraordinary funding to purchase the commitment of candidates and seated officials has to stop. These folks were never intended to work for special interests and corporations. They were intended to serve the people of the United States of America. When private interests purchase public officials, the public pays- especially in cases where the messaging from the government is at odds with the messaging of the lobbyists and private donors. One of JD Vance’s largest donors is Peter Teal. In a leaked recording, he can be heard advising Vance to break with the pope, going so far as to suggest that the pope’s recent targeted pleas to the American government to seek peace and unity, are more aligned with the Antichrist than Christianity. While this argument should actually be neither here nor there- after all, the United States is intended to have a clear separation of church and state- WE THE PEOPLE are not blind to the subtle nuances of religion as influence in political circles. The fact that Vance looks to Catholicism as his moral compass and the push to break with messages of peace and unity is consequential- intended or not- to the United States government. Ending special interest lobbying and influential funding would force candidates to make individual stands on subject matter without the potential ramifications of contradicting donors. It would force members of government to form and uphold their own actual thoughts on political matters and would allow the public to truly freely elect persons who represent their best interests instead of the interests of the gun industry or the oil industry or whatever industries were financing them before. WE THE PEOPLE encourage you to embrace your own politics and shed the cloak of financial influence. Demand caps on donations and an end to special interest lobbying.