Refuse all campaign contributions from Wall Street banks, investment houses, and super PACs.

Washington Post opinion writer Harold Meyerson reports that banks, hedge funds, private equity funds, and their partners and employees generated just over $500 million in campaign contributions to federal candidates and parties in the 2008 election cycle. This sector of Corporate America is unlikely to reduce its campaign financing role, particularly since banks, according to Meyerson, accounted for 41 percent of all corporate profits in the U.S. during the past decade. Given both parties’ dependence on Wall Street for campaign cash, it remains to be seen whether any politicians will be brave enough to buck their financier paymasters and join the growing anti-Wall-Street chorus in support of reforms such as a financial transaction tax or more stringent banking regulation.