Governor Steve Bullock of Montana

11/10/2014

Governor Steve Bullock

Office of the Governor

PO Box 200801

Helena, MT 59620-0801

Dear Governor Bullock,

My name is Matthew Winick with a strong interest in history from Ann Arbor, Michigan. The reason I am writing you a letter is because I find your work as an Attorney General of Montana and later as Governor of Montana on advocating for campaign finance reform very inspiring to me.  I strongly believe that campaign finance reform is an important issue and there is a strong need for it; to reduce corruption in elections, reduce dark money influence from different groups (special interest groups, PACs, non-profit groups, and outside money from different states), reduce lobbying groups influence on political members like Congressional, Judicial, governors, and state with local electives from being corrupted by their money, and make the system to be fair for voters or constituents.  After the Supreme Court sided with Citizen United with many other lobbying groups by saying money is freedom of speech I was amazed when you were an Attorney General of Montana challenging the Supreme Court ruling by defending your state’s campaign finance law banning corporate campaign expenditures.  Even though the Supreme Court didn’t side with your state with your effort to defend Montana’s law, I am very proud of you for making a great example not only for Montana, but for me and the rest of our country by advocating the need for campaign finance reform with your ideas to make elections fairer, and reducing corruption in the political system.  

 After watching you on the news advocating for campaign finance reform I decided to do more research about your ideas for campaign finance reform and I am amazed that you are still continuing on working with both parties as Governor of Montana on campaign finance reform.  I recently studied you idea called TRACE(Transparency, Reporting and Accountability in Campaigns and Elections) and I like the ideas that you worked on with State Senator Jim Peterson, a Republican. TRACE has great ideas like limiting how much money a candidate running for office can get from a political committee, require all major donors to be identified through public disclosure, prohibit corporate and union contributions to a candidate (except for voluntary contributions from an employee or a member of an organization), and many others.

As a voter, an American, and with a strong interest in history I strongly believe that there is a need for campaign finance reform for our country and in American History to not repeat the same mistakes, help improve voters confidence to participate in elections, reduce corruption in elections including political office, reduce money influence in elections, candidates or with political career, end the lobbying influence with special interest groups, and reduce wasteful spending. From a history perspective I strongly believe that you Governor Bullock make a great difference for our country and history by being a true advocate for campaign finance reform with government reform. I Also I am proud of you as a moderate Democrat for standing up to the lobbying groups by siding with the people, I strongly believe that you can make a difference for our country, and for political parties.  Thanks for taking the time to read my letter. I appreciate with respect for your work on campaign finance reform that both political parties ignore. I wish you well continuing being Governor of Montana and continue fighting for our values to make our country more democratic with campaign finance reform with government reform. I am proud to call you a true American influential on advocating for change and reform.

Sincerely,

Matthew B. Winick

Governor Peter Shumlin of Vermont

10/27/14

Governor Peter Shumlin

Executive Office of Governor Peter Shumlin

109 State Street, Pavilion

Montpelier, VT 05609

Dear Governor Shumlin,

My name is Matthew Winick from Ann Arbor, Michigan.  I find your ideas very inspiring to me and your ideas are important for history and our country.  Governor Shumlin, I myself like studying history, political science, criminal justice, and some business with some science. I enjoy learning these subjects because I want to learn on how to improve society by understanding the need for reform like Health care reform to help people with pre-existing conditions or who need care to get access to a health care with not getting rejected by insurance companies, a need to fix the criminal justice system by reforming sentencing for non-violent offenders with extending more rights for juveniles, advance on Civil Rights to end discrimination for people who are different, the need to better protect the environment by using renewable energy with environment protection to reduce pollution, and many others. Learning and studying these different subjects gets me interested on working with creating new ideas.  

In my winter semester last year I took Intro to Criminal Justice class and I really enjoyed learning about how the system works, the court system, civil liberties, and the need for reform to have checks and balances in the system.  My instructor got me interested in looking up on different alternative ways to fix the system.  I did some research and it helped me generate ideas like the need to extend rights for juveniles, a strong need for alternative sentencing for non-violent offenders like community service, more treatment programs with counsel to help drug addicts or drug users from being addicted to drugs, some regulations on gun sales by having background checks, and education programs to address the need to reduce drug abuse with gun violence. I enjoyed learning about the system and the strong need to reform the system. Governor Schumlin, I decided to do some research about you and I find your work with idea to reform the criminal justice system inspiring to me. I am amazed by your approach by finding ways to reduce non-violent offenders from serving a jail sentence by having programs to help rehabilitate them, more treatment programs to help reduce drug addiction with drug abuse, and having checks with balance on legalizing marijuana with some regulations like fines or treatment programs instead of facing harsh sentencing.  I find your approach to be common sense.

Besides your work on reforming the criminal justice system I find your other work with stance inspiring to me like advocating for a better health care system like single payer system to help people get the health care they need, supporting environment protection by using renewable energy to reduce pollution with staying away from fracking, advancing on Civil Rights to end discrimination for people who are different, and finally support same-sex marriage and equal partnership to even make Civil Rights stronger.  In my opinion from a history perspective I believe that you are making a great difference with leading great examples for our country to learn new ideas with common sense reform.  I wish you well on continuing your role as Governor of Vermont and to continue working on new reforms to make a great difference not only for your state, but your our country, and for me. Thanks for taking the time to read my letter.

Sincerely,

Matthew B. Winick 

Governor Deval Patrick

10/13/14

Governor Deval Patrick

Office of the Governor

Massachusetts State House

24 Beacon Street

Room 105

Boston, MA 02133

Dear Governor Patrick,

My name is Matthew Winick from Ann Arbor, Michigan. My main interest is history, government, and world culture. These subjects are my favorite because I like to learn how to improve society through ideas, the need to advance on Civil Rights to help protect people who are different from discrimination, a strong need to protect the environment by using clean alternative resources from pollution, and many others. Governor Patrick, I read your book: “A Reason to Believe Lesson From An Improbable Life”.  A Reason To Believe Lesson From An Improbable Life helped me understand your early life on how you overcame your struggles through being on welfare, how your father left you when you were young, and going to public schools which was sometime violent. Your book was moving because it described on how many people including teachers, and mentors help guide you to help overcome your struggles and have confidence including helping you get in different careers.  Governor Patrick, your story and book really help inspire me to have faith when times are hard because I have Autism with a learning disability.  Having a disability is hard for me because I have trouble comprehending on learning new subjects, having trouble fitting in with other people, and getting teased by other people. However in my life there has been people, some teachers, Pamela Anne who worked with me on speech therapy to help me improve on my speech, and people who are famous who work hard to make a world a better place from discrimination like you and many others.  Your story help give me confidence to keep going on my life, to work hard on goals, and that there are people who can make a difference in your life.

 “A Reason To Believe Lesson From An Improbable Life” motivated me to do more research about you, your career, and your hard work as Governor of Massachusetts.  From a person with a strong interest in history I believe that you make a great difference for our country through being U.S. Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division where you work hard to help improve Civil Rights to help people who are different from discrimination and as Governor of Massachusetts where you continue advancing on Civil Rights, supporting legalizing same-sex marriage, protecting the environment through clean alternative energy, and help improve health care by expanding more programs to help drug addicts to recover.  Thanks for taking the time to read my letter and writing your memoir which help inspire me. I wish you well continuing serving your second term as Governor of Massachusetts. When you retire I want you to continue being an advocate to improve Civil Rights to help protect people who are different and continue to share your story about overcoming your struggle.

Sincerely,

Matthew B. Winick

Senator Larry Pressler

9/23/14

Senator Larry Pressler

3101 West 41st Street

Suite 210

Sioux Falls, SD 57105-8101

Dear Senator Pressler,

My name is Matthew Winick and I am amazed by your bipartisan work in the Senate on an important legislation that helped benefit me for the future. Senator Pressler, thank you for supporting with other Senators like Ted Kennedy, Bob Dole, Richard Lugar, John Warner, Joe Biden, and Tom Harkin from both parties on a bipartisan bill known as The Americans With Disability Act of 1990.  I have autism with a learning disability since my childhood and still today. Having a disability is hard for me because I have trouble comprehending on learning new subjects and sometimes I get teased by other people.  The Americans With Disabilities Act helped me get an education by having an special education program to have a special education teacher with a T.A. to help me learn different subjects with working on homework to catch up with other students.  In education The ADA really helped me in education by having accommodations like extra time on exams, record lectures on a digital recorder to help me take notes in class, and extra time on homework to help me get caught up with other class students. In technology the ADA helped me by having audio books, having articles read back to me when highlighting, and having close captions on t.v. helped me improve on comprehension along with vocabulary. I am touched by your moderate stance to help improve Civil Rights and support the ADA which made a great difference for me. Without the ADA I would have trouble getting an education or not be able to comprehend on learning new subjects. I have taken some class at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor studying history, political science, world culture, some business, criminal justice system, and some science because I want to use these subjects to make a difference for the world in the future.  MY goal is to use history with these subjects to help generate new ideas to make a future a better place and educate people the need to reform to make a world a better place.

Even though I am not the same political party as you I truly admire your work with stance on the need to improve Civil Rights to end discrimination for people who are different, support women’s rights, advocating technology to help people like me, support the need for campaign finance reform to make elections become democratic, protect the environment from pollution by supporting alternative energy, and bringing the need for government reform to end the corruption, abuse in pay raises on congressional members, reduce the lobbying along with PACS from bribing Congress with money and gifts.  Recently I heard in the news that you are running as an Independent for South Dakota Senate Race 2014.  I strongly believe that you will make a great difference as an Independent Senator in Congress after you help make a difference for me with your support of the ADA, your moderate stance from extreme views, your courage to say no to a bribe in the Abscam scandal, and the bipartisan work with President Carter, Ford, Bush Sr., and President Obama.   

Thanks for taking the time to read my letter and helping support the ADA with some of the other Senators I mention.  As a history student I believe that you have made a great difference in American history by working to make a world a better place. Also I want to wish you good luck in the Senate race. Even though elections are hard I want you to not give up hope and continue on advocating for the people, the need for Civil Rights to end discrimination, support better healthcare for people who can’t afford and the need to end lobbying influence on Washington.

Sincerely,

Matthew B. Winick