(This post is part of the candidate blogger series on MyDD. I am not affiliated with the Dodd campaign in any way.)

When talking with a friend about my support for Dodd, he raised a puzzling objection. I told him, as I've told you, that I support Dodd because he works on issues I care about right now, in the present. My friend said, "It's nice that he's trying to restore habeas corpus and all that, but why isn't he using the most powerful lever he has to work for change now?" I asked him what he meant. He told me that Chris Dodd has been chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs for some years, yet he hasn't seen too many accomplishments from Dodd in this arena.

This indeed was a puzzling objection. If my friend spoke the truth, Dodd could be accused of making noise about big, controversial issues while ignoring the important issues over which he had the most control. After a bit of research (which I put off for a while...banking reform just isn't my issue sometimes), I found that Dodd has used his platform as committee chairman to fight for progressive banking reform, as I suspected.

Chris Dodd was one of only 25 Senators who were against the 2005 bankruptcy reform legislation which made it more difficult to file for bankruptcy and made it harder for working families to get out of debt in general. The bill was so bad, the Justice Department was forced to relax the new rules after Hurricane Katrina to avoid stranding thousands of disaster victims with unpayable debt and an inability to file for bankruptcy. Indeed, eRiposte at The Left Coaster concluded that Dodd has the best record out of the candidates on all recent bankruptcy reform bills, essentially voting progressive 100% of the time.

Dodd has also used his position to fight for progressive banking reform in other areas, offering progressive banking amendments, passing legislation to help people keep their homes, and introducing legislation that would reform the private student loan business and help more families afford college.

Last week, Chris Dodd introduced his presidential plan to deal with bankruptcy issues. According to the campaign:

Recent studies show that nearly half of all people who file for bankruptcy protection do so because of medical reasons. Almost as many are due to the loss of a job or divorce. Unfortunately, today's bankruptcy laws--recently re-written by the credit card companies, passed by a compliant Congress, and signed into law by President Bush--disproportionately penalize our most vulnerable families and leave them without a safety net.

Dodd's plan rolls back the regressive portions of the 2005 bankruptcy bill to make sure it fights for American families. Most important for me, his proposed reforms would allow citizens to discharge medical or educational debt when entering bankruptcy proceedings, making it harder for sudden illness or higher education to push families into financial ruin.

Banking legislation can be very dry at times. Personally, as a young voter, I am less affected by this legislation than those with families, mortgages, and retirement plans. However, I realize that these issues will affect me in the near future. I'm glad that Chris Dodd has been using his committee chair position, the most powerful platform he has, to fight for banking reform in the Senate.

(And, as a public service, I just registered to vote in my state's primary. If you haven't registered yet, the deadline for some states approaches quickly. Registering is usually pretty easy, but if you need help, voter registration organizations like Rock the Vote can set you up.)