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.