So, why can’t we get effective campaign finance reform? There are seven main reasons:
- You can get politicians to pass laws compelling job applicants, welfare participants, and even grade school students to pee in a cup, but they will never pass a law saying that they have to do that. The good people of Maine tried fourteen times to get their legislature to pass a campaign finance law— and lost every time. It wasn’t until it was proposed by plebiscite that the legislature acquiesced. And even though it’s probably the best in the nation, it’s not that good a law; the legislature saw to that.T
- No candidate worth his salt ever thinks they have enough money.
- Trying to identify all the sources of income is nigh impossible.
- The Federal Elections Commission is toothless.
- The FEC is slow: Trying to determine if the money is legally spent is also close to impossible. The same factors of late discovery and tardy prosecution obtain.
- The major contributors, who generally get a return of 1,200 percent on their investment in candidates, don’t want to lose their advantage.
- Public cynicism about politics acts as a retardant on political will: Pols know that they can get away with almost any campaign finance malfeasance because the public expects no justice will be exercised.
- Everybody who wants reform is looking at the wrong problem. All the attention is focused on raising money.
So, to get real campaign finance reform, the improved system must have the following virtues:
- We need to provide all qualified candidates the assurance that they will not lack for sufficient money, that they can raise funds from any source and in any amount. This is the carrot that gets them to vote for better regulation.
- Somebody else has to pee in the cup: The law must not oblige the legislators. It does not require them to conform or to suffer penalties for failing to conform.
- We need to replace the FEC but with a body which will be highly motivated to pursue wrongdoing and is served by a fast-track judicial process.
- We need to focus the most publicly visible point of the campaign funding cycle— the chokepoint through which all money, whatever the source and whatever the amount, must flow in order for the campaign to function.