BP is Ballot Poison - BP Election Finance Boycott 2010

We pledge to withhold our votes from any candidate for any office in the United States, including, most importantly, the United States Congress, who receives any campaign funding from BP plc, commonly known as British Petroleum.

We believe that the accident on the Deepwater Horizon and the resulting deaths, ecological damage, and any possible resulting social and economic damage, the fact that BP is working closely with the federal government and state governments in the vital effort to mitigate the damage, and the fact that BP is under investigation for criminal and civil liability related to this accident and the damages incurred, creates an unacceptable conflict of interest if BP donates to political campaigns in the 2010 election cycle already in progress.

While we do not have the authority to say whether receiving campaign donations from BP, or BP donating to campaigns, represents a conflict of interest which could be grounds for legal prohibition of these actions, and while we do not wish to undermine freedom of speech, we feel that it is inappropriate given the extreme nature of this ongoing emergency for BP to use economic power to influence the 2010 election. We feel that stopping the oil and natural gas leak on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico, the effort to clean the leaked oil and mitigate the damage, and the investigation and any legal action, must all be concluded before it would be appropriate for BP to continue to finance election campaigns.

THEREFORE, we pledge to BOYCOTT any vote we may have otherwise cast for any candidate for any office who receives campaign funding from BP plc or any subsidiary thereof, or any candidate who has previously received funding from BP and fails to return the unused portion, upon receipt of this petition. If any candidates do receive campaign funding from BP plc or its subsidiaries, we pledge to VOTE for a competing candidate who has not received funding from BP, WRITE IN a candidate of our choosing who has not received funding from BP, VOTE FOR NONE OF THE ABOVE, or ABSTAIN FROM VOTING in protest.

In the case of a POLITICAL PARTY receiving general funding from BP plc, we pledge not to vote for candidates affiliated with this party unless they do not accept funding from their party's national committee.