I want to explore an idea I had about limiting nepotism in politics. The idea is simple. By law, donors who donated to one member of the family (say W Bush) are not allowed to donate to another member of the same family (say Jeb Bush) for at least 10 to 15 years after their last donation to (W Bush). This is the high level outline of what will limit a little bit of the unfair advantage of a candidate who is related to another elected office holder. With this law in place, if a candidate who is related to another candidate is able to get themselves elected, more power to them in a manner of speaking. I have not defined family in a precise manner, but that is the easy part.
I am not particularly interested in debating the pros and cons of nepotism. I know I can't stop people from doing that. Put me down on the anti nepotism side. While Caroline Kennedy's attempts to become a senator brings this issue to focus, the objective of this diary is not to deny her a senate seat.
As some background, here are some interesting links that I found on the subject.
Definitions: Nepotism
Simulation of the effects of nepotism: Link They are not good.
We already have several laws against nepotism in public employment. Link. If public employment can be governed by anti-nepotism laws, I don't see why there shouldn't be a law governing nepotism for elected office.
A compendium of nepotism in American politics: Link
As we all know, this is a problem in both parties. Sen. Feingold, help us out.
To measure the effectiveness of such a law or to make a case for such a law, it would be helpful to quantify the number of nepotistic politicians at any give period of time. Unfortunately, I could not find any such data at the federal level. It might be easiest to put something together at the presidential level.
Update:
Garrett, in the comments, thinks that on constitutional grounds this may not be viable. Alternately, the law should then at minimum prevent donor network sharing between family members who are running for office and those who have successfully run for office to take the onus away from the donors. The same should apply for direct fund raising by prior incumbents who are family members, and bundled fund raisers affiliated to the incumbents.