If you’d like to read about a suggestion to make the MVTD program even more effective, click here to jump to it below. It involves giving voters direct power in elections.
Fmr. NYC Councilman, 3-time Mayoral Candidate, now Chief Political Strategist:
Sal Albanese, the former New York City Councilman who helped write the small-donor matching funds law and ran for mayor three times without developer or lobbyist money, has just been named Chief Political Strategist of Make Voters the Donors, a nonpartisan national organization that unites all Americans to end big money in politics.
After nearly four decades of reshaping campaign finance in New York, Sal is taking that fight to the country
Make Voters the Donors is a nonpartisan organization founded by Dr. Dan McMillan, PhD, a writer, historian, and former prosecutor, on a mission to restore government by the people.
MVTD advances the Voter Dollars proposal, under which every registered voter receives campaign funds to donate to candidates they support, leveling the playing field and ensuring that political power flows broadly from citizens, not from concentrated private wealth. The organization focuses on public education, coalition building, and common-sense reform that transcends partisanship.
The following questions and topics guided the interview:
Please discuss your history – From Brooklyn classroom to national reform strategist
Why reform the system?
What it costs a candidate to say no to big donors?
Why big money in politics still unites left and right
What NYC’s matching funds law got right, and where it stopped short
Can we talk about the history that led to this moment – including Citizens United and the most recent decision of National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission, which ruled that there can be no federal restrictions on political parties spending directly coordinated with candidates, whereas before there were restrictions on such coordination. What are the possible ripple effects on these laws being struck down and the precedent this sets?
What have been the results of businesses and private individuals being able to spend an unlimited amount on campaigns? What are the implications for a truly democratic republic?
To whom does this money actually go in the end? Is it to media buyers/advertising executives and networks that they advertise on? Are there rules for where the money must be spent and by whom, in New York?
Are there restrictions on how the recipients of these funds for ads and marketing can spend them, or is that not regulated?
What are the implications for community media regarding campaign funding? Such media is not always included in campaigns, but we can speak about how in this most recent previous city mayoral & council race, with participation by community media outlets in a citywide election turnout push, may have contributed to turnout higher than has been seen in many decades. About 2.5 million voters cast their vote, which is about a quarter of the total residents. This demonstrated their value in messaging and reaching civic minded voters
Donor money: we will talk about the 35% of researchers who are biased in medicine and they look for the unblinding and then use that to determine the outcome of the study.
Can you talk about the psychology of donor money and why it is so effective in getting politicians – including those with no reelection campaign – to do the will of the donors? The money is generally not directly available to the politician, as it can only be used in specific ways (depending on the state), so it isn’t like they can use it to build a pool in their yard or an extension on their house. The question then becomes: why do they do the will of their donors when there is no tangible recognizable benefit to them for doing so?
We know that it happens that they do the will of big business, as anyone paying attention to politics has likely noticed, so it is important to understand why. Is it possible that there is money changing hands that is not tracked that politicians do use to finance their own lives? Does it have to do with business opportunities that they will have access to after their terms, such as the revolving door demonstrated to occur at the FDA where regulators are offered lucrative consulting positions after their terms end as well as high-profile pharmaceutical executives obtaining lucrative positions within the FDA as regulators, so going between the two positions…
We briefly discussed how corporations became citizens when no such court decision occurred, along with the evolution of campaign finance laws and related SCOTUS decisions that led to the point of Citizen United, as well as the way in which CU was decided – since the question originally before the court was much narrower in scope than what was later requested by the justices in order to completely strike down most campaign finance laws
There are community media organizations out there, and not only do they often cover outside non-incumbent candidates, they also often cost less for actual ads. Interested candidates can find online only community media outlets at LION Publishers. New York candidates can find community media outlets serving the city and state at CUNY’s School of Journalism directory.
There might be a way to give actual power to the voters rather than to the candidates only. If you changed the dollar amount from $100 to $300 and made it a voucher type of system, voters could use their vouchers to directly buy ads from any media source they like.
Keeping in mind the high costs of mainstream media, such an amount would allow them directly but ads from a community media outlet. Nearly all outlets include ad design with their ad buy (including our paper), so that $300 would get you an ad totally paid for and running (for a week or two). Voters could pool their vouchers together for a longer run, more varied ad campaign, or multiple outlets with a coordinated campaign (like candidates do themselves).
Let’s say this becomes law and people start doing this. What would also most likely happen is that the major media outlets would see this going on, and they’d want to participate. So you’d see ‘voter direct’ ads available at a much lower cost where vouchers are the payment method for such an ad buy. So instead of choosing millions for an ad slot, they might make some really small, narrow packages, maybe cost $1-10k, where a group of voters corps pool together their vouchers and get a major media ad buy in a print or digital news outlet. It’s doubtful that television would be affordable, but you never know. They might see this as a patriotic thing to do (you know, to fix the broken system). Whether that happens or not, voters would be able to afford community media ads, especially in rural areas. Each outlet has its own readership numbers, and most of them are not low. They may not be billions, but millions are achievable, and many CM outlets have very high readership. But giving power directly to the voters in this way would have a great psychological effect too. One is really participating, really helping their candidate win. Then if they do win, the voters can remind them that it was their ads that got them into office (at least partly).
Fmr. NYC Councilman, 3-time Mayoral Candidate, now Chief Political Strategist
NEW YORK CITY: Sal Albanese, the former New York City Councilman who helped write the small-donor matching funds law and ran for mayor three times without developer or lobbyist money, has just been named Chief Political Strategist of Make Voters the Donors, a nonpartisan national organization that unites all Americans to end big money in politics.
After nearly four decades of reshaping campaign finance in New York, Sal is taking that fight to the country.
“I am excited to be part of this effort to revolutionize the way campaigns are financed in our country so our political system can reflect the will of average Americans. We must end the legal bribery, or we will continue to be a failed democracy,” said Albanese.
Why Sal can speak on these topics:
He helped write the law. Original sponsor of the NYC small-donor matching funds program, copied by jurisdictions nationwide for 35 years.
He lived it. Refused every dollar from real estate developers and lobbyists across three NYC mayoral runs in 1997, 2013, and 2017.
He is timely. Only 17% of Americans trust the federal government, near a seven-decade low according to Pew Research Center. Albanese has been making this case since the 1980s.
As Chief Political Strategist, Albanese will draw on decades of hard-won experience in political reform, electoral systems, and governance to help make Voter Dollars law: transparent, administratively simple, and built to last across political cycles.
“Sal is what every political leader should be: someone who listens to, represents, and serves the people,” said Dr. Dan McMillan, Founder and Executive Director of Make Voters the Donors.
Who Is Sal Albanese? From Brooklyn Classrooms to City Hall
Albanese’s story is a classic American one. An immigrant kid from Italy who grew up in Brooklyn, he spent 11 years as a New York City public school teacher before entering public life and has taught as an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and St. Joseph’s College. He holds a B.A. from the City University of New York, an M.A. from New York University, and a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School.
A Top Fighter Against Money in Politics
Few Americans can speak about money in politics from as many vantage points, including:
- What it costs a candidate to say no to big donors
- Why big money in politics still unites left and right
- What NYC’s matching funds law got right, and where it stopped short
- From Brooklyn classroom to national reform strategist
Make Voters the Donors is a nonpartisan organization founded by Dr. Dan McMillan, PhD, a writer, historian, and former prosecutor, on a mission to restore government by the people. MVTD advances the Voter Dollars proposal, under which every registered voter receives campaign funds to donate to candidates they support, leveling the playing field and ensuring that political power flows broadly from citizens, not from concentrated private wealth. The organization focuses on public education, coalition building, and common-sense reform that transcends partisanship.
Learn more at makevotersthedonors.org.
New report: $642M in undisclosed money flows into 2026 super PACs
“This is a bipartisan arms race with a nonpartisan casualty: the voter.” – Sal Albanese
Chief Political Strategist, former NYC Councilman, Congressional and Mayoral Candidate
A new report in The Nation today found that at least $642 million has moved from nonprofits that do not disclose their donors into super PACs and hybrid PACs this election cycle.
The money is helping fuel the fight for control of Congress, but voters often have no way of knowing who was behind it in the first place.
Sal Albanese, chief political strategist for Make Voter Dollars the Donors, talks about what this means for voters and why disclosure alone isn’t enough when so much money can still move through organizations that shield their donors.
Sal can discuss:
Why the growth of “gray money” makes it harder for voters to understand who is trying to influence their elections.
How both parties benefit from political-money structures that put major donors and outside groups at the center of campaigns.
Why candidates spend so much time raising money from well-connected interests instead of engaging directly with the people they hope to represent.
How Voter Dollars would give regular voters a greater role in financing political campaigns.
As Sal puts it: “This is a bipartisan arms race with a nonpartisan casualty: the voter.”
Sal Albaneseis chief political strategist for Make Voter Dollars the Donors, a former New York City Council member, former congressional candidate, and three-time New York City mayoral candidate. He represented Brooklyn on the City Council for 15 years and was an early sponsor of New York City’s small-donor matching-funds law. Having served in office and run campaigns at the citywide and congressional levels, he brings firsthand experience with the fundraising pressures that shape political campaigns.
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