Released at: January 13, 2015
300-mile New Hampshire Rebellion March Urges Presidential Candidates to Support Campaign Finance Reform
Concord, NH - From January 11 to 21, hundreds of reform-minded citizens are braving the elements and walking across New Hampshire in a frigid “New Hampshire Rebellion" against big money in politics. Walkers from across the state and region are participating in four simultaneous NH Rebellion marches covering over 300 miles from Portsmouth, Nashua, Keene, and Dixville Notch to Concord, NH. On January 21st, the fifth anniversary of Citizens United, the marchers will converge on the State House in Concord for a statewide rally, petition delivery, activist trainings, and celebration.
“As far as We the People are concerned, American elections are bought and paid for by big money special interests, and it’s disgusting,” said Daniel Weeks, Executive Director of NH-based Open Democracy, which organized the Rebellion. “As the first-in-the-nation primary state, we are putting the presidential candidates on notice that NH voters are not for sale. We're walking across NH to demand the next president commit to reforming this corrupt system on day one."
Wearing orange vests and carrying "Rebellion" signs, the walkers will log between 8 and 20 miles per day through winter weather that is projected to stay below freezing for much of the march. They will sleep in churches, homestays, and motels.
Throughout the ten-day march, the walkers will hold multiple community outreach events around the state to educate their fellow citizens about the nation’s campaign finance system and alternatives for reform. Aided by a newly developed web app, QuestionR.org, they will urge citizens to ask every presidential candidate who comes to New Hampshire what specific reforms they will advance to lessen the influence of private money in politics, and hold them accountable to their answers.
“The growth of this movement in New Hampshire since last year shows that people from across the state and across the political spectrum are taking a stand to stop systemic corruption in politics,” said Jeff McLean, Director of the NH Rebellion, a campaign of Concord-based Open Democracy. “The demand on candidates to spend the majority of their time raising money from special interests increases polarization and dysfunction in Congress and its historically low level of public approval. It is time we take on this root issue.”
Founded by scholar-activist Lawrence Lessig, the NH Rebellion march is inspired by the “rebellion clause” of the New Hampshire Constitution, which calls on citizens "to reform the old or establish a new government” when laws serve a privileged few rather than “the common benefit, protection, and security of the whole community.”
Professor Lessig and other marchers are seeking to continue the work of the late New Hampshire reformer Doris “Granny D” Haddock, whose historic cross-country walk for campaign finance reform at the age of 90 helped spark a citizens movement to pass the McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002.
"The New Hampshire Rebellion cuts across party lines to champion fundamental reforms that are needed to save our state and our country," added former Republican gubernatorial candidate Andrew Hemingway, a member of the NH Rebellion. "It is time for New Hampshire citizens to rise up with one voice and demand clean elections, ethical fundraising, and a reversal of what big money and partisan politics have wrought on our Democracy."
NH Rebellion is part of Open Democracy, the Concord-based nonpartisan reform organization founded by Granny D. To learn more about the NH Rebellion, please visit: www.nhrebellion.org. To register for the walk please visit: walk.nhrebellion.org. To see details about the planned events, visit You can also follow us on Twitter @nhrebellion and on Facebook at: facebook.com/nhrebellion.
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