Dems Must End Legalized Bribery of Campaign Finance

It is now conventional wisdom that the 2006 election was decided on two major issues: Iraq and corruption. Exit polls show that's the case, and even Karl Rove admits it. That this storyline has become such a given is particularly humorous for me. It was just a few months ago that I was criss-crossing the country on a 40-city tour for my book,Hostile Takeover, telling audiences not to listen to Washington pundits who said corruption important; that, in fact, corruption was going to play a major role in the election, and that if Democrats refused to take the issue seriously when they claimed the majority, we could be in for the shortest congressional majority of the last century.

But, many people I met asked, “What does it mean for Democrats to take the issue ‘seriously’?” The answer is simple: They must attack not only the headline-grabbing excesses of gifts, trips and meals, but also, more significantly, go after the core of the problem, which is the nexus of money and politics. Specifically, they must push to publicly finance all congressional elections.

I know, I know—I and other groups like Public Campaign have probably sounded like a broken record on this issue for a long time now. But that's only because the campaign financing system really is at the root of corruption. We have a system that is legalized bribery—legal campaign contributions go in, and legal legislative favors go out. But just because it is legal, doesn't mean it isn't unethical and isn't one of the major reasons why our government can no longer solve problems. It is. A government cannot solve problems if members of Congress making decisions are forced by virtue of their campaign finances to appease the Big Money interests that are often at the root of those problems.

So what are the prospects for congressional action on public financing with an election mandate at lawmakers' back? Here is a look at the proponents and opponents—and what will make the difference.

The Good Signs

Buried in a Sunday New York Times article we get our first glimpse of the major players pushing real reform:

"Spurred by the election results, several Democrats in addition to [Illinois Democratic senator] Mr. [Barack] Obama are pushing bigger changes. Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, is preparing a proposal for some form of public financing or free broadcast time for congressional candidates to reduce their dependence on campaign donors. Common Cause says that 21 newly elected Democrats, more than half the class, and 69 incumbents have signed a pledge endorsing the idea."

Obama could be particularly pivotal. As I reported from my interview with him for The Nation earlier this year, the Illinois senator has shied away from pushing any proposal on any issue that fundamentally challenges the Washington power equation. However, the one issue that he appears willing to consider spending his political capital on is campaign finance reform. As an Illinois state legislator, he authored a bill to publicly finance his state's judicial elections. And recall his appearance on "Meet the Press" in January of 2006:

SEN. OBAMA: This is the part of the job I dislike the most, which is having to raise money. It is something that none of us are immune from because of the amount of money that has to be raised in order to get on television and run campaigns. It is a problem that I have to deal with, it’s a problem that John McCain has to deal with, it’s a problem that Russ Feingold has to deal with. It’s something that all of us wrestle with. My belief in terms of moving forward on the ethics legislation is that we’ve got some low-hanging fruit that we should take care of right away…There are some easy things that we can do that hopefully will build momentum for some of the tougher stuff, which involves, how do we reduce the enormous amounts of money in politics generally? And those are going to be some tough questions, because they might involve, for example, asking the question, “Why don’t we have free television time, for candidates, to reduce the amounts of costs?” My suspicion is that NBC, just like ABC and CBS, wouldn’t necessarily be wild about those approaches, but that’s the kind of conversation over the long term we’re going to have to have. This is a starting point.

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