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Groups press Obama on campaign finance reform |
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By Alexander Bolton
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Posted: 11/06/08 01:52 PM [ET] |
Seven liberal good-government groups are putting pressure on President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats to create a new public financing system in the wake of an election that cost an estimated $5.3 billion.
“A central theme of the 2008 presidential race was the need to fix Washington,” wrote the groups in a joint statement. “President-elect Obama, for example, said during the campaign, ‘to fix healthcare we have to fix Washington.’
“In order to accomplish this goal, the overriding priority on our reform agenda for the 111th Congress is to repair the presidential public financing system and to create a new public financing system for congressional races.”
The Brennan Center for Justice, the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, Democracy 21, the League of Women Voters, Public Citizen and U.S. PIRG co-authored the statement.
“Both candidates ran on an agenda of changing the way Washington works. It’s great rhetoric, but here’s how you do it,” said Meredith McGehee, policy director at the Campaign Legal Center. “This is what it’s going to take. This is where it starts. If you don’t fundamentally deal with the way money works in this town, you’re not really changing how Washington works.”
Political analysts say the presidential public financing system has become defunct in the wake of Obama’s successful campaign, which shattered fundraising records after opting out of the public financing system.
The GOP nominee, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), found himself at a significant financial disadvantage during the final months of the campaign because he had to adhere to strict spending restrictions that came with the nearly $85 million in public funds he accepted during the summer.
As a result, political analysts say that future candidates for president will have to forgo public funding if they hope to run competitively during the general election.
Proponents of reform would like the presidential funding system changed in several ways: They want state spending limits lifted, the federal match for small donations increased, and they say the fundraising role of the Internet should be re-examined.
The good-government groups also would like Obama and Congress to create a new public financing system for congressional candidates.
They argue that the national financial crisis stems from the influence of campaign contributions from banking and financial sector lobbyists in Washington.
“It is widely acknowledged that the absence of effective regulation and oversight played a major role in the massive financial crisis that has occurred,” they wrote. “Campaign contributions to federal officeholders from the financial sector played a major role in thwarting such effective regulation and oversight.”
Two powerful House Democrats, Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) and Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), introduced a bill in June of 2007 establishing a public financing system for congressional candidates.
The bill would set spending limits on candidates running for the House and ban independent expenditures by outside groups. The legislation did not get past the committees of jurisdiction.
Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) also introduced a congressional public financing bill during the 110th Congress. It likewise made little progress.
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