Campaign Finance Reform
Even a cursory examination of the news media shows a number of key events that have placed campaign finance reform ("CFR") front and center. These include: record-setting "soft money" fund raising by both political parties in the last election; the problem of self- funded candidates; fund-raising from foreign sources; independent expenditures.These issues led the pack, but the hearty perennials, such as political action committee ("PAC") funding, electronic disclosure, public funding and the like were also being debated. Perhaps CFR is a topic whose time has finally come.The campaign finance system is corrupt. Spending is out of control, and there are various loopholes infederal campaign finance law. Money buys access and influence, which effectively causes the majority of Americans to have no real capacity toinfluence public policy. State and federal legislation is needed to fightcorruption and unjust influence, to ensure the public's right to know where acandidate's money comes from, to enable all candidates to competeequitably in elections, and to allow maximum citizen participation in thepolitical process. Rock the Vote believes that the McCain-FeingoldCampaign Finance Reform Bill, in its
Senator Russ Feingold, a proponent ofcampaign finance reform, said, "The current campaign finance system isfueling the transformation of our representative democracy into a corporate democracy creating a political system that allots power in direct relation tothe amount of money an individual or interest group can contribute"(Campaignfinancereform. With campaign finance reform, we could get challengers and incumbents on a level playing field so that the candidate with the better ideas who will honestly help the majority will end up the victor. Rock the Voteadvocates the signing the McCain-Feingold bill into law. After cuts from corporate welfare and wasteful government spending this would save taxpayers $495 to $995 dollars a year, not to mention price drops as a result of reduced corporate spending on political campaigns. The legislation would require outside groups to provide full disclosure of allexpenditures to the Federal Election Commission (fec. Taxes are high because of corporate welfare. These issue ads are just anotheroutlet that soft money can flow into. A challenger, to even have a chance, would have to turn to business and wealth to win. This money has to come from somewhere. All of th!esetypes of contributions that can be regulated are known as hard money. Is that really something that the American people are ready torelinquish? Anne McBride, president of Common Cause, said, "As long assoft money contributions are allowed, big money will drown out the voices ofthe average citizen, diminishing our democracy" (Campaignfinancereform. Competitive prices would be of great help to those who are on a fixed income, such as the elderly population, and cannot afford the high price of medications. Although these people can stillcontribute to campaigns, their contributions are quelled against the influencethat big money contributors can have. Campaign finance is an urgent issue that must beaddressed as soon as possible.
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Acceptance Essays
