Reading Elizabeth Bruenig’s column in the Aug. 12 Maine Sunday Telegram, addressing third-party candidates being the “spoilers” in our elections, raises the question: How can you spoil something that is already rotten?

I do agree with her comment that “voting in a democracy is tactical.” If we move to identify and support the third-party candidates – whether left, right or in the middle of the present morass – and have an outcome that takes away just 5 percent of, say, the Senate and 10 percent of the House, we can begin to break up the unending gridlock no matter who is in the White House. Those left in their uncompromising parties will have to play ball to get anything meaningful passed.

We don’t go into the polling booths to vote for people to work for Nancy Pelosi or Mitch McConnell, who decide through the Democratic and Republican national committees who will get money by how much time they spend at each headquarters raising funds instead of working in Congress. And we all know where that money comes from – not from the regular voters, but from the infamous K Street lobbyists.

If every state in this union passed a law that candidates running for state or federal office would be able to collect contributions only from those individuals and businesses that live, vote and pay taxes in that state, we would eventually be able to let Citizens United implode. And, we, the voters, would finally have someone who represents us and not the K Street clowns.

Increasing the number of independent and third-party candidates is the only way out of this mess.