The explosion of issue advocacy — money spent by individuals and independent groups to support political causes — threatens to make even an outright ban on “soft” money irrelevant. Worse, much of what passes for “issue advocacy” is really covert campaign financing. Still worse, it can’t be regulated.
Campaign Spending
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Watch What You Wish For
In pursuit of campaign finance reform, many seek to reverse the precedent established by the Supreme Court in 1975, protecting campaign expenditures as free speech. But if the Court’s ruling is overturned, the general protections of the First Amendment might be severely narrowed.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Below the Beltway: Goo-Goos Versus Populists
S ince the election, almost every group in town has been meeting to develop a position on campaign finance reform. The Brookings Institution’s Tom Mann has organized a working group that holds luncheons and has its own web page (www.brookings.edu/gs/campaign/home.htm). Organizations from Common Cause to Citizen Action are holding meetings of what they call the […]