Ind. Senate Candidate: We Should Stop Electing Senators

American Bridge, the Democratic super-PAC dedicated to collecting incriminating video footage of GOP office-seekers, has had its cameras trained on Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock for months. But the group waited until Wednesday, the morning after Mourdock knocked off incumbent Sen. Dick Lugar in the GOP primary, to begin showing off its wares. First up? This clip from February, of Mourdock calling for the repeal of the 17th Amendment, which provides for…the direct election of Senators:

Key quote:

You know the issue of the 17th amendment is so troubling to me, our founding fathers, again those geniuses, made the point that the House of Representatives was there to represent the people. The Senate was there to represent the states. In other words the government of the states…

You know just think of this. In today’s world we see millions and millions of dollars spent on Senate campaigns. Two years ago, in 2010, Sharron Angle out in Nevada spent $31 million dollars, just herself. How much money would be spent in federal senate races if the state legislators were electing those people. You just took the money out of politics. Is that a bad thing?

Mourdock’s not the first conservative to make the case for repealing the 17th Amendment—George Will has made the case (he’s also called for the abolition of jeans), as has Rick Perry. It is, however, jarring to see the case being made by someone who’s currently campaigning to win a direct election to the Senate. It’s also not clear what problem the repeal would actually fix—expenditures would be transferred to the local level. And, as we’re reminded practically every day, America’s state legislatures are hardly bastions of sound decision-making.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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