Progressive columnist and radio host said in April 1995:
 
“Here’s my idea:  Like NASCAR race drivers or PGA golfers, why not require each of the candidates to cover their clothing, briefcases and staff with the logo patches of their corporate sponsors? . . . After all, truth-in advertising ought to apply to politicians, too.  So let’s make them wear the brands of their corporate sponsors.”
 
Hightower’s idea was proposed by politicians such as Jesse Vetura and Gary Johnson. California had a ballot proposal with the idea in 2015-16.
 
   
Wikipedia: Jim Hightower
James Allen “Jim” Hightower (born January 11, 1943) is an American syndicated columnist, progressive political activist, and author who served from 1983 to 1991 as the elected commissioner of the Texas Department of Agriculture.
   
Wikipedia: NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is a family-owned and operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto-racing sports events. Bill France, Sr. founded the company in 1948 and his grandson Brian France became their CEO in 2003. NASCAR is motorsport’s preeminent stock-car racing organization. The three largest racing-series sanctioned by this company are the Sprint Cup Series, the Xfinity Series, and the Camping World Truck Series. The company also oversees NASCAR Local Racing, the Whelen Modified Tour, the Whelen All-American Series, and the NASCAR iRacing.com Series. NASCAR sanctions over 1,500 races at over 100 tracks in 39 of the 50 US states as well as in Canada. NASCAR has presented exhibition races at the Suzuka and Motegi circuits in Japan, the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico, and the Calder Park Thunderdome in Australia.
(...)
During the 2012 United States third party presidential debate, libertarian candidate Gary Johnson criticized major corporations backing the Democrat and Republican candidates by suggesting that they “should be required to wear NASCAR-like jackets” with logos of the companies that back their campaigns.
         
Google Groups: misc.activism.progressive
Hightower Radio FAXQUOTES Misc…
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4/28/95
FaxQuotes
Jim Hightower Says
April 17—April 23, 1995
BRAND NAME PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES
Here’s my idea:  Like NASCAR race drivers or PGA golfers, why not require each of the candidates to cover their clothing, briefcases and staff with the logo patches of their corporate sponsors? . . . After all, truth-in advertising ought to apply to politicians, too.  So let’s make them wear the brands of their corporate sponsors.
 
Google News Archive
24 September 1995, The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR),  “Populist’s radio talk show faces extinction” by jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon, pg. 4B, cols. 2-3:
Hightower has a novel idea for the 1996 presidential campaign: “Like NASCAR race drivers or PGA golfers, why not require each of the candidates to cover their clothing, briefcases and staff with the logo patches of their corporate sponsors?”
 
26 October 1995, The Intelligencer-Record (Doylestown, PA),  “Big business silences a voice of reasoned dissent” by Molly Ivins, pg. A-9, col. 1:
One of his (Jim Hightower—ed.) ideas for the 1996 presidential campaign is that we should make politicians “Like NASCAR drivers or PGA golfers. Why not require candidates to cover their clothing, briefcases and staff with the logo patches of their corporate sponsors?”
 
Google Books
Who Let the Dogs In?:
Incredible Political Animals I Have Known
By Molly Ivins
New York, NY: Random House
2004
Pg. 223:
Hightower once proposed that politicians be forced to wear the corporate logos of their biggest contributors on their clothes like NASCAR racers, so we’d know who they sold out to. These folks couldn’t get them all on one outfit.
 
Twitter
E-Rock
‏@swirlspice
Lizz Winstead: Politicians should have to wear a patch for every corporation that gives them $$ like NASCAR drivers. #ncmr
8:53 PM - 7 Jun 2008
 
Twitter
Mac Ball
‏@MacBall
New Rule, Politicians should wear the logos of their Corporate Masters on their suits, NASCAR style.
@MrChuckD @LupeFiasco @ImmortalTech
4:23 PM - 4 Dec 2011
 
Twitter
Kevin
‏@Keighvin
It would be nice if politicians had NASCAR jackets…you know with logos of all the companies that are sponsoring them?
1:27 AM - 7 Dec 2012
 
Twitter
Dustin Blythe
‏@Dustin_Blythe
“Politicians should wear uniforms like NASCAR drivers so we can see who their corporate sponsors are” -Jim Hightower
Embedded image permalink
3:59 PM - 21 Dec 2013
South Bend, IN
 
Ora
Politicians Should Wear NASCAR Suits
Off The Grid May 07 ‘14
In this #OffTheGrid clip, Jesse Ventura proposes that U.S. politicians should have to wear the same jumpsuits that NASCAR drivers wear, so the American voters know who own these Poll-Cats!If the Koch Brothers are bankrolling a senator’s campaign, he or she would have to proudly wear “Koch Industries” across his or her chest.Do you agree with the Governor?Tweet Jesse @GovJVentura
 
The Huffington Post
Here’s What It Would Look Like If Lawmakers Wore Donors’ Logos Like NASCAR Drivers
A group of protesters in California imagined their legislators in NASCAR-style uniforms.
08/27/2015 03:04 pm ET | Updated Aug 27, 2015
Mollie Reilly
Deputy Politics Editor, The Huffington Post
A group of protesters in California took a stand against the influence of money in politics Wednesday by imagining what it would look like if lawmakers had to publicly advertise their campaign donors on their clothes à la professional stock car drivers.
 
The protesters placed cardboard cutouts of all 120 California state lawmakers and Gov. Jerry Brown (D) in front of the state capitol in Sacramento. Each legislator wore the logos of the corporations that back them in the style of NASCAR drivers’ brand-filled uniforms.
 
The protest was arranged by Neighborhood Legislature, a group aiming to curb the influence of special interests and big money in politics via the Neighborhood Legislature Reform Act.
 
YouTube
Entrepreneur Wants Politicians To Wear Corporate NASCAR Logos
Secular Talk
Published on Dec 28, 2015
 
Vice
Will California Actually Force Legislators to Wear Sponsor Patches Like Nascar Drivers?
By Mike Pearl
Staff Writer
December 31, 2015
There’s an old joke out there about forcing politicians to wear Nascar uniforms that tell us who their corporate sponsors are. I can’t seem to trace it back to its origin, but I assume it was an email forward from someone’s uncle. Now, it’s looking conceivable that that joke could soon be a non-humorous, actual thing, legally required in the State of California.