Thanks for coming!
Americans for Campaign Reform would like to sincerely thank everyone who attended our Evening to Honor Warren Rudman Tuesday evening. The event was a success at every level. Hundreds of guests from across the political spectrum gathered in Bedford, NH to pay tribute to a true statesman. During the evening we heard from Senator Rudman, John Rauh, and others about the critical need to take back our government so we can meet the challenges our nation faces. Former Senators Howard and Nancy Kassebaum Baker addressed the audience and former Governor of New Hampshire Walter Peterson served as Master of Ceremonies.
Weekly Roundup - Chapel Hill, Extreme Makeovers, and Networked Nerds
A Federal Appeals Court unanimously upheld North Carolina's judicial public funding law, and found that the public funding system furthered First Amendment values:
Relying on extensive precedent from around the country, and particularly on the U.S. Supreme Court's 1976 decision in Buckley v. Valeo, the Fourth Circuit found that North Carolina's disbursement of matching funds to voluntary participants in the public financing system "furthers, not abridges, pertinent First Amendment values." Likewise, the court found that Act's reporting and disclosure requirements "advance" the state's important interests in "providing the electorate with information" and in "deterring actual corruption" and the appearance thereof.
Via
Public Funding in the Granite State? Stay Tuned.
Governor John Lynch (D-NH) will sign legislation next month appointing a seven member commission to examine and recommend options to establish a system of public funding of elections.
The commission membership will be bipartisan and will conduct a series of public hearings starting in July around the state to solicit input from New Hampshire citizens. Maine and Arizona have had public funding of elections since 1998, and the experience of these two states will be part of the commission's work.
Weekly Roundup
The Sunlight Foundation proposes that banning earmarks is unrealistic and that a better step would be to make the earmark process completely transparent.
Common Cause looks the phenomenon of cross-party giving that happens when Republican lobbyists must do business in a Democrat-controlled Congress.
Public Campaign links to poll results showing that 74% of New York residents support publicly financed campaigns.
Like Congress, Supreme Court a Safe Haven for Millionaires
The Supreme Court is hearing a challenge to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act and specifically the Millionaire's Amendment, which lifts fundraising limits on a candidate when their opponent is spending large amounts of personal wealth. The amendment was constructed in reaction to the popular belief that wealthy candidates can more or less purchase a seat in elected office.
Photo by Flickr user .A.A.
Two more hacking at the root
"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root."
At least two more people joined the ranks of the public funding movement full-time last month. One of them you may have heard of, and the other you definitely have not.
The first is Lawrence Lessig, renowned thought leader and the only man I know of who could make copyright reform feel fun and easy. He has turned his attention and unique skillset to the pressing issue of the corrupting influence of money in our government. Lessig has launched a bipartisan group called Change Congress. It's based on a simple, four plank platform to end corruption in Congress. As you might have guessed, plank #4 is Support publicly-financed campaigns:
Campaign Ca$h
Check out Moblogic.tv's episode on Campaign Cash, below, and its sister blog post, which has lots of great links.
There is such thing as 'enough'
In our new policy paper, "Does Money Buy Elections?", Policy Director Dan Weeks analyzes the impact that campaign funding has on the outcome of congressional elections. Dan's findings are fascinating: While campaigns require a minimum amount of funding to be competitive, additional funding past this threshold has a very marginal impact on who wins. Even when it's millions of dollars more:
The true picture of campaign spending and its implications for electoral success is more nuanced than the vote-buying hypothesis suggests. Simply put, campaign dollars are not created equal. The force of the first dollar spent in terms of of its vote-getting effect for the candidate is considerably greater than that of the millionth. And once a million has been spent, in all but the costliest of districts, additional spending by incumbents and challengers alike means almost nothing at all.
Implications for Campaign Finance Reform:
- Improving the funding prospects of qualified challengers could meaningfully increase the level of competition in congressional campaigns
- Funding levels should vary with the competitive spending threshold of a given district to enable unknown candidates to be heard, but they do not necessarily need to match the maximum spending of privately funded candidates
- Reforms aimed at limiting candidate spending or restricting access to funds are likely to have an adverse effect on challengers
Money & Politics: Live Webcast 12:30pm Friday
Watch live as Americans for Campaign Reform's Founder John Rauh speaks at the City Club of Cleveland's Friday Forum. John will be discussing how big money influences who runs for office, who wins, and what they do once they get there.
Watch here:
http://fms.uakron.edu/applications/city_club_of_cleveland/live.htm.
You'll need the Adobe Flash Player to view the webcast -- download it free here.
Getting a Grip on Money and Politics
Here's a lively interview between best-selling author Frances Moore Lappe (Diet for a Small Planet, Getting a Grip) and John Rauh, founder of Americans for Campaign Reform.
