Written by Katherine Delos Reyes

In the realm of congressional politics, reelection inevitably lies as one of the focal points of pressure for new lawmakers struggling to maintain their incumbency.

An undisclosed freshman Democrat was in the midst of making fundraising calls in a public space when he was observed by the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza to be a classic case study in this common phenomenon of reelection anxieties.

Lizza was gracious enough to provide live coverage of a literal attempt to “publicly” finance a campaign through a series of frank, but comedic tweets.

Lizza is led to a revelation that points out one of the root causes of shortcomings that congressional politics is burdened with today. Lizza tweeted,” I now understand the case for public financing of congressional politics.”

Politicians such as the one observed by Lizza are dependent on the constant flow of campaign donations, which blur the accountability delivered between promises made to one’s respective constituents and the agreements that were sealed with checks in favor of corporate interests.

Former Justice Stevens summed up the state of campaigning and elections after Citizens United, saying, “If the debate is distorted by having one side have so much greater resources than the other that sometimes may distort the ability to decide the debate on merits.”

Elections should be fairly won, and accessible to the constituents that are affected by possible legislation enacted by their elected officials. The case for public financing must only grow stronger to provide greater a domain for citizens to be heard, and perhaps to also avoid possible mishaps for pleas for money in public.

Katherine Delos Reyes is a senior Political Science and Law & Society Major at UC Riverside. She is interning at the Los Angeles Office of California Common Cause for the Summer of 2013.