Represent Us Education Fund

 

Represent.Us Education Fund (RUEF) is a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization challenging the undue influence of well-financed special interests over American politics through long-term structural reforms. We support public education, research, and online and traditional grassroots organizing to build unprecedented grassroots political pressure for sweeping reform. In 2012, UREF launched the Represent.Us campaign to fight money in politics corruption.

RUEF’s office is located in Florence, Massachusetts and all staff live and work here in the Valley. We have many locally based volunteers and interns who donate their time to support the Represent.Us campaign.

It was important to our staff and volunteers to participate in Valley Gives. We would like to build local support and recognition in our community. We are asking only our local members to give through the Valley Gives campaign.  

RUEF is committed to improving life in the Pioneer Valley and beyond. Vally Gives is an opportunity to raise our profile in the region while developing relationships with locals who believe in our mission.  

The Represent.Us Campaign

The undue influence of moneyed interests in politics has escalated into a major crisis that blocks progress on nearly every issue—from the economy and healthcare to social justice and the environment. After decades of failed efforts to address the problem, it has become clear that forging a path to victory required a rethink of reform strategies.

This realization motivated a group of advocacy experts and attorneys to join forces to create Represent.Us, an innovative political strategy build on a fresh set of strategic assumptions:

• Politicians will act only if forced to. Any winning strategy must have the demonstrated ability to unseat politicians of any party who oppose reform.
• We must build a massive movement. Unseating politicians requires millions of people and the active mobilization of myriad public interest constituencies.
• The movement must be genuinely right-left. Building a massive movement requires the active participation of conservatives, moderates, progressives and the disaffected. More than 85% of Americans support robust reform. It’s time to finally harness this confluence of support.
• The proposal must be comprehensive, not incremental. It must actually fix the problem. It must preempt negative attacks from opponents, and it must be powerful enough to inspire a movement.
• Reform must be framed as fighting corruption. People may like democracy, but they are fired up about corruption.
• Meaningful reform usually occurs at moments of political crisis or scandal. We need comprehensive proposals that are positioned as consensus solutions when the next crisis occurs.

These assumptions constitute the foundation of the Represent.Us campaign, and reflect a departure from status quo reform efforts that have failed to advance reform for the past three decades. In response to these assumptions, Represent.Us crafted the American Anti-Corruption Act, comprehensive legislation that would overhaul campaign finance, lobbying, conflict of interest and disclosure laws. The Act goes well beyond the narrow range of the current debate in Washington, yet is viewed as a common sense proposal by a vast majority of Americans, liberal and conservative.