Model and Strategy
At Take Back Our Republic (TBOR), our focus is on the American voter being once again represented in a Democratic Republic where their voice can be heard, and they are confident their elected official will act on the issues that are important to them.
In the last decades, billions of dollars have been contributed to campaigns to influence elected officials. We believe that citizens’ ability to influence the political process is profoundly and negatively affected by our current systems of federal and state campaign finance and disclosure as well as unfair redistricting which breaks up communities to make it prohibitively expensive to run for office.
Our mission is to educate the American electorate on how to make their voices heard in the most effective way. To do so, we must draw attention to the abuse of big money in politics and educate the nation on our solutions to restore power back to “We the People.” We want citizens to feel empowered knowing their vote and voice matter and their elected official has their best interests at heart.
Impact
Our focus is on the American voter being once again represented in a Democratic Republic where their voice can be heard, and they are confident their elected official will act on the topics discussed.
Success would restore representative government by balancing the time a Member of Congress or State Representative spends more equally between: 1) raising money, 2) applying their expertise to key issues such as education, taxes, health care, public safety and infrastructure, and 3) interacting with constituents via phone, events, door-to-door and other activities. Just 20 years ago when each of these efforts required about 1/3rd of their time - constituents were confident that with a little initiative they could interact with their elected officials, and in turn, the official would have time to act on the problem discussed.
While running campaigns for decades, our executive director, John Pudner, watched this balance of 1/3rd to each of these items shift to overtime to require up to 85% of their time, which leaves no time for interaction with constituents or solving their problems.
As long as overt gerrymandering exists, almost all candidates are in “safe” districts where they have no incentive to interact with voters, only to raise out-of-state money to donate to their political party to leverage a more important committee seat. By insisting on district lines based on algorithms giving voters the shortest drive possible to the center of their district, TBOR not only will bring them closer to their elected officials but also enable them to organize to replace or support officials focused on them in a fair districts.
Leadership
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John Pudner
Executive Director
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Justin Hill
Director of Operations