Public Campaign Finance
The Blog at The Nation presents a discussion of Public Financing of Campaigns.
The “pressure for constant fundraising is unsustainable – there is a convergence of democratic values and ideals and more pragmatic considerations wrought by fundraising fatigue. (“The result of this nonsense is that almost one-third of a senator’s time is spent fundraising,” former Democratic Senator Ernest Hollings wrote in a Washington Post op-ed lat year.) There are two excellent bills with impressive co-sponsorship, the Durbin-Specter Fair Elections Now Act (S 1285) and in the House, the Clean Money, Clean Elections Act of 2007 (HR 1614). Both bills would allow candidates who show a qualifying level of support and opt-out of further private contributions to receive public funding. According to Senator Durbin, “Support is increasing for the idea of public financing in fair elections: seventy-four percent of all voters support public financing… 80 percent of Democrats, 65 percent of Republicans, and 78 percent of Independents.”
We can never stop the influence of special interests in politics but we can’t give up on the constant effort to keep it under control. At least public campaign finance gives candidates some chance to get elected while maintaining their objectivity and pragmatism. I intend to restrict my campaign contributions to those who support reasonable controls.
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8 Responses to “Public Campaign Finance”
The second that this passes, is the last second that the Republicans are relevent. Considering that close to 90% of incumbents are reelected and now half of the Democratic incumbents will not even have an opponent in the general election, this act will push it close to 100%.
Such a law will gie the U.S. a congress comprised of activist and/or former staffers. It will also allow current Congressmen to hand pick their successor more than they do know. Of course, it will sold as keeping special interest money out but will be filled with enough loopholes to give the Democrats another dominate edge.
Who, other than the predictable Democrats as SD has already anticipated, would qualify for public finance of campaigns? Any fringe candidate, no matter how non-serious?
[...] Yi-Wyn Yen wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptAt least public campaign finance gives candidates some chance to get elected while maintaining their objectivity and pragmatism. I intend to restrict my campaign contributions to those who support reasonable controls. [...]
Whatever the problems with public financing that might arise, they can’t be as bad as the problems we have without it. The situation has gotten totally out of hand.
It’s unconscionable that we are paying politicians salaries to spend so much time in fundraising instead ot attending to their duties as lawmakers.
Whatever the problems that may arise with public financing, they could never be as bad as the problems that exist without it.
I think this would work best if we also have term limits for Senators and Representatives – maybe 2 Senate terms and 5 in Congress. One other benefit I see in public financing is that it opens the field to more candidates instead of the same old career politicians. If you pair that with term limits, it allows for people who wouldn’t have run before to get into the political sphere. There are a ton of smart, compassionate, hard-working men and women in this country who could do an excellent job representing their states, but the cost of getting into a race is prohibitive.
As a side note, I don’t see this as being the death of the two-party system, but more of a rebirth of the multi-party system we had in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The Republicans are down and out, sure, but the Democrats are so diverse and divided on so many issues that they could be broken into multiple smaller parties.
[...] entry sparked by a post at The Moderate Voice, an insightful publication, that I sadly am unable to read as much as I’d like. Tags: [...]
Americans want term limits, two terms and out!
(Lengthen the House term if you find it too short.)
I’m not so sure about term limits. While it may be a good idea in principle, I’m not sure at how many terms the limit should be set.
A Senator needs time to learn how to be an effective Senator, and likewise a Congressperson.
This is particularly true re committee assignments. One can only acquite the necessary expertise in a given area with lots of time and seasoning.
A lot of greenhorns introducing and passing legislation is not the perfect way to get good laws.