Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster
Set your DVR: Rep. David Jolly will be featured on “60 Minutes” this Sunday.
Jolly is set to discuss the Stop Act, a bill he proposed earlier this year that makes it illegal for members of the U.S. House and Senate to personally solicit donations. Jolly, who is running for the U.S. Senate, filed the legislation in January.
“Republicans, Democrats and independents can all agree on one thing — the public did not elect members of Congress to go to Washington and spend their time raising money for their re-election,” said Jolly in a statement Friday. “They are not paying members $174,000 a year to spend, in some cases 20 or 30 hours a week, on the phone dialing for dollars. But that is exactly what is happening.”
Jolly told “60 Minutes” correspondent Norah O’Donnell that he was told his first job as a newly elected congressman was to raise $18,000 a day.
“We sat behind closed doors at one of the party headquarters back rooms in front of a whiteboard where the equation was drawn out,” he told O’Donnell. “You have six months until the election. Break that down to having to raise $2 million in the next six months, and your job, new member of Congress, is to raise $18,000 a day. Your first responsibility is to raise $18,000 a day.”
Jolly tells O’Donnell that to achieve those benchmarks, members often cold call donors who have given to other candidates in the past.
The proposal has received bipartisan support and has been endorsed by dozens of editorial boards. It has also been featured on HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.”
“Sometimes the simplest reforms can make the greatest impact,” said Jolly in a statement. “The Stop Act is simple, and its impact could change Washington forever.”
Jolly is one of five Republicans running to replace Sen. Marco Rubio in the U.S. Senate. He’ll face Rep. Ron DeSantis, Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, Carlos Beruff and Todd Wilcox in the Aug. 30 primary.
The story is set to air at 7 p.m. Sunday.
