It's time for the Senate to abolish the filibuster.

The filibuster is undemocratic and contradicts the core principle that legislation should become law by majority vote. The mere threat of a filibuster can bring the business of the Senate and the American people to a halt.

The filibuster allows a minority of 41 Senators to block the will of 59 Senators. Even when 60 Senators support a bill, the 60th Senator can hold the bill hostage to individual demands that can warp important legislation.

We call on every candidate for Senate in 2010, and every Senator who will continue to serve in the 112th Congress, to pledge to vote, on the first legislative day in 2011, to change the Senate's rules to eliminate the filibuster.

(This petition will be delivered to all current 100 Senators and all identifiable non-serving 2010 candidates for the Senate)

Before Christmas, our fight for a public option ran into a brick wall of opposition by 44 Senators: all 40 Republicans plus Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, and Mary Landrieu.

Those 44 Senators were able to block the will of 56 Democrats because of the 60-vote requirement to end a filibuster.

This 60-vote requirement is no longer the exception reserved for issues of deep principle. Since Democrats won the Senate in 2007, it has become a routine method for Republicans to block the will of the majority of the Senate - and the majority of Americans who elected them.

This is profoundly un-democratic, and it must end. And Jonathan Tasini is leading the fight to kill the filibuster.

Tasini is running for the Senate from New York State, to fill the seat vacated by Hillary Clinton when she became Secretary of State.

(After the Caroline Kennedy fiasco, Gov. David Paterson appointed little-known upstate centrist Kirsten Gillibrand, and her September primary opponents include Tasini and possibly Harold Ford Jr.)

For three decades, Tasini has been a union leader and organizer, a progressive activist, and a blogger who focuses on work, labor and the economy.

He is one of our three "Jobs Not Wars" candidates because he promises to bring our troops safely home from Iraq and Afghanistan, and use the savings to create urgently-needed jobs and establish Medicare for All. (And your contributions are making a huge difference for our three candidates!)

And now Tasini is using his Senate candidacy to launch a nationwide campaign to kill the filibuster.

If elected, Tasini promises to vote NO on the Senate rule that contains the filibuster. (That's the solution supported by Paul Krugman.) And he wants every Senator who is campaigning in 2010 - Democrats and Republicans - to join him in this promise.

Let's do everything we can to help Tasini succeed.