CAMPAIGN DOLLARS AND SENSE:
McCarthy, Eugene J
CAMPAIGN DOLLARS AND SENSE eugene J. McCarthy One more indication of the thoughtlessness of the Congress Does the campaign finance reform act go far enough? The question is not whether it goes...
...While their concern was justified, some of them supported cures that are worse than the sickness...
...In fact, the Presidential oath of office-including the pledge to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States"-was written into the Constitution itself...
...The Senate version of the campaign finance bill included specific provisions against voting fraud, which is the most direct kind of political corruption...
...it dropped the provisions against voting fraud...
...The new law's discrimination against Independent candidates and other outside challengers is most clearly apparent in the provisions for Presidential elections...
...And when he pardoned Richard Nixon, Ford referred to himself as "a humble servant of God...
...In realistic terms, Senator Jackson may well be 20-30 staff members ahead of any non-incumbent challenger...
...The federal requirement (in both the old and the new laws) that any contribution over $100 must be disclosed seems more reasonable-although the suggestion that a candidate will sell out for $101 is an insult to his integrity...
...The new federal campaign law-as well as some of the more severe state laws on campaign finance-may well increase the barriers to citizen participation...
...And in our own century, William Stafford wrote in his poem "Connections": And if we purify the pond, the lilies die...
...they exercised the veto power more often because of constitutional doubts than for any other reason...
...and a wealthy House candidate can contribute $25,000 to his own campaign...
...Disclosure of large contributions can be defended in the public interest...
...but security enough to make fellowships accursed: much upon this riddle runs the wisdom of the world...
...The new federal law is over 40 pages long and very complex...
...Advocates of the measure generally hold that money is the root of all political evil-money rather than stupidity, inordinate desire for power, or concern about one's place in history (formerly called pride...
...This loophole is particularly interesting because some of the worst abuses in the 1972 campaign were connected with multi-candidate committees...
...A recent Atlantic article on Senator Henry Jackson, a frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in 1976, said that Jackson's regular Senate staff, Interior Committee staff, and subcommittee staff amounted to 85 persons...
...Yet elected officials are supposed to be representatives of their constituencies, as Gerald Ford suggested when he reportedly said of his record in the Congress: "Forget the voting record...
...What the law defines as a "minor party" would be entitled to a smaller convention subsidy...
...Unfairness in the delegate selection process has discouraged participation in primaries by many citizens...
...But one might question the new California requirement that any contribution over $50 must be reported...
...Moreover, there is no limit on the total amount that a multi-candidate committee can contribute to all campaigns...
...Anyone who must operate at all times with an accountant on the right hand and a lawyer on the left hand is likely to be discouraged from participation, to say the least...
...One reason was that various reform groups exerted great pressure for passage of the law...
...novelty is only in request...
...Less obvious, but still significant, are the advantages of an incumbent Senator who runs for the Presidency...
...It may be the most serious, following after (1) its approval of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, an ill-conceived and badly-written amendment...
...but no existing party meets the law's definition of a "minor party...
...None of the smaller parties which competed in the 1972 Presidential election won that high a percentage of the vote...
...It raises fines for violations up to $25,000...
...I have many myself...
...The background research and the publicity that such staff people provide -at taxpayers' expense-is very great...
...Why not...
...As noted previously, even Democrats and Republicans in the Congress-and President Ford- seemed to be worried about its constitutionality...
...He is also well ahead of other incumbent Senators, since his seniority gives him control over many more staff people than most Senators have...
...Even some members of the Congress who supported the bill as a whole expressed serious reservations about its favoritism toward incumbents...
...2) the approval of the so-called volunteer army, which act insures an unrepresentative and undemocratic, mercenary army...
...There are cases in which the public interest is sufficiently compelling to override one's private interest in the secret ballot, but I am not certain that $50 is the proper place to draw the line...
...George E. Agree, who has studied campaign finances for the Twentieth Century Fund, notes another kind of class discrimination in the new law...
...There is scarce truth enough alive to make societies secure...
...a wealthy Senate candidate can contribute $35,000 to his own campaign...
...The law thus includes class discrimination among its inequities...
...it practically guaranteed that incumbents will remain incumbents...
...An individual can contribute no more than $2,000 to another person's campaign for federal office ($1,000 in the primary and $1,000 in the general election) and no more than $25,000 to all other persons' campaigns for federal office...
...and the wording of their oath of office is prescribed by statute...
...The last feature of the new law is one of the worst...
...Those who worry about citizen apathy should remember that fear is often a major component of apathy...
...The law provides public funding, through the tax checkoff system, of $2 million for the next Democratic national convention and $2 million for the next Republican national convention...
...A proposal to have the federal government finance political activities-especially party activities-would have lasted about five minutes at the Constitutional Convention...
...Why shouldn't a non-wealthy candidate be permitted to receive from someone else one $50,000 contribution for a Presidential campaign...
...and a provision allowing political party contributions in general elections raises the limit even higher...
...The law initially limits House candidates to spending $84,000 in a primary election and $84,000 in a general election...
...The passage of the campaign finance bill is one more indication of the thoughtlessness of the Congress, of its lack of sensitivity to the function of ideas and of institutions in American democracy...
...It must certainly give the Supreme Court pause when they see officeholders with vested interests in remaining officeholders passing legislation that restricts the ability of potential opponents and average citizens alike to alter the political makeup of the Congress...
...An inflation escalator clause raises the initial limit...
...Quite apart from the deeper issue of discrimination is the question of whether public financing of campaigns is a good thing...
...That definition includes only a party which won at least 5 percent of the votes in the last Presidential election...
...Any time we pass legislation in this field we are causing constitutional doubts to be raised...
...The Presidential nominee of each major party will receive $20 million in public funding for the general election campaign in 1976...
...State laws which discriminate against Independents and against new-party candidates have discouraged others...
...Senator James Buckley of New York, who opposed the bill, called it the "Incumbent Protection Act of 1974" and said, "To offer this bill in the name of reform is an act of unprecedented cynicism...
...And President Gerald Ford, upon signing the bill into law, released a statement in which he said: "And although I do have reservations about the First Amendment implications inherent in the limits on individual contributions and candidate expenditures, I am sure that such issues can be resolved in the courts...
...Consider a liberal candidate who is running in Manchester, New Hampshire-the city of the Manchester Union Leader, which day after day supports conservative officeholders and candidates...
...The conference committee emerged with the worst of all possible worlds: It underwrote the two major parties at precisely the time when more and more voters deserve and want another alternative...
...Twenty thousand rich people could command the same $5 million of tax money as five million poor people...
...It would have been rejected as a repudiation of the basic theory of democracy...
...The new law also discriminates against those citizens who wish to challenge incumbent members of the Congress...
...And some now hesitate to contribute because of requirements for disclosure of relatively small contributions...
...The founding fathers did not want the Congress or the President to evade responsibility in this fashion...
...the plain effect of this is discrimination against challengers...
...Some are now afraid to become involved in any financial aspects of a campaign because of the increased complexity of the law-which makes unwitting violations far more likely-and because of the increased penalties for violations...
...But a Presidential candidate who is not in public office must try to match this staff capacity with campaign money that is subject to strict limits...
...While an individual may contribute only $2,000 to a Presidential or Congressional candidate, a group like the dairy committee, the AMA committee, or COPE is allowed to contribute $10,000 ($5,000 in the primary and $5,000 in the general election...
...and (3) the passage of the revenue-sharing act, under conditions of panic and pressure from state governments and under the conditioning force of the economists who predicted unlimited economic growth and, consequently, a miraculous increase in federal revenues which could best be distributed to the states for their disposal...
...The Constitution also provides that members of the Congress "shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution...
...The conservative Buckley added, "It is particularly disturbing that Senators who had heretofore been considered civil libertarians have rushed to support this measure without considering alternative means, less drastic in their scope, of accomplishing their purposes...
...and it provided such severe restrictions on individuals' participation as to discourage many citizens from participating in politics at all...
...Duke: None, but that there is so great a fever on goodness, that the dissolution of it must cure it...
...The traditional reluctance of the courts to strike down Congressional legislation-even when the justices have grave doubts as to the constitutionality of a law-should make members of the Congress more keenly aware of their own responsibility to the Constitution...
...It is assumed that if a proposal has bipartisan support, it is good...
...For that matter, how many challenging candidates want to assume that kind of liability...
...Some people are afraid to speak out at public meetings because they think (often with good reason) that their neighbors will react with hostility...
...Anyone who has watched the two parties operate on a state level should not be surprised when they act as a trade association on the national level...
...Democracy involves some risk and some trust, especially in the election process...
...Alluding to the Constitution's guarantee of free speech, Buckley said that: The fear of overly persuasive campaigns, particularly when expressed by incumbent members of Congress, strikes dangerously close to prohibited suppression of speech because of its content...
...In any case, the two party committees were right in expressing pleasure...
...In the sixteenth century, William Shakespeare wrote in Measure for Measure, his greatest political drama: Escalus: What news abroad i' the world...
...What the law defines as "multi-candidate committees" are also favored over individual citizens...
...We have been warned against attempts at over-control by at least two poets...
...Theoretically, an Independent Presidential candidate or the candidate of a "new party" (one that has just formed or one that received less than 5 percent of the vote in the last Presidential election) might be eligible for some public funding-but not until after the general election, and even then would be eligible only if he or she had obtained at least 5 percent of the vote, and even in that case would not be eligible for the same amount received by major-party candidates unless winning the average of their vote...
...Some are afraid to write letters to editors for the same reason...
...Would the Nixon campaign committee of 1972 have hesitated to spend money derived from the tax check-off to finance the Watergate activity, any more than they hesitated to use money collected either legally or illegally in 1972...
...An Independent or third-party candidate could in fact run second in a three-way race and receive a smaller share of federal funds than the privileged party candidate who had run third...
...The major parties, having committed some rather major sins, are to be protected from temptations rather than tested and held responsible...
...The law's careful provision for non-existent minor parties may have been patterned on a scene from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: "Have some wine," the March Hare said in an encouraging tone...
...There is a basic conflict and danger in having the government itself strongly influence the political process by which it is chosen...
...A Republican supporter of the law commented on the floor of the House just before its passage: "I believe within this conference report there are at least 100 items questionable from a constitutional standpoint...
...it provided special loopholes for wealthy candidates and for multi-candidate committees...
...Although the discrimination against challengers is most evident in the case of House campaigns, it also appears in Senate campaigns and even in Presidential campaigns...
...The two have long cooperated in passing state laws which discourage Independent candidates and new parties from presenting effective challenges...
...Had the campaign finance act been in force in 1972, one defender of the law has said, Watergate would not have happened...
...The new campaign finance law is a logical extension, at a higher level, of the trade association's prior activities...
...Voter participation in Presidential elections has declined steadily since 1960...
...There is no public funding for Congressional candidates, but there are severe limits-beginning in 1975-on campaign spending by such candidates...
...and it is as dangerous to be aged in any kind of course as it is virtuous to be constant in any undertaking...
...Why, then, did the legislative and executive branches of the government evade their responsibilities in the case of the campaign finance law...
...The new law may not provide fair competition between the two of them, but it effectively limits competition from any new group...
...This is a special problem in the case of House incumbents...
...On becoming Vice President and then President, he indicated that he was his own man...
...Incumbents can spend as much for direct campaign costs as can their challengers...
...Leaders of both parties were thus willing to evade the serious constitutional problems involved in the bill and to pass those problems on to the courts, which are already overburdened with challenges to other bad laws...
...I don't see any wine," she remarked...
...A second reason for passage of the bill was suggested by President Ford in the formal statement released at the time he signed the bill: "I am pleased with the bipartisan spirit that has led to this legislation...
...One-hundred and eighty-seven years later, the proposal is still contrary to the theory of democracy-and also, I believe, unconstitutional...
...Subsequently, in his first address to the Congress, he suggested that he was everyone's man...
...or one $25,000 contribution for a House campaign...
...Minor parties could receive a smaller subsidy-if there were any minor parties...
...The early Presidents took most seriously their role as guardian of the Constitution...
...There isn't any," said the March Hare...
...This news is old enough, yet it is every day's news...
...Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea...
...Yet a wealthy Presidential candidate can contribute $50,000 to his own campaign...
...The rationale for this is that it will prevent the temptations presented by the old system of financing conventions by selling to large corporations advertising space in convention program books...
...The argument for allowing a wealthy candidate to contribute more to his own campaign holds that such a person represents only himself...
...Each private contribution up to $250 will then be matched by a government contribution...
...Requiring disclosure of contributions is, in a sense, an invasion of the secret ballot...
...The publicly-subsidized advantages of an incumbent President are rather obvious...
...How many volunteer treasurers for Congressional campaigns want to assume that kind of liability, in addition to the possibility of a one-year jail term...
...Abuses revealed in the Watergate hearings moved many citizens and organizations to support reform of any kind...
...In a New York Times article of October 28, 1974, Agree remarked that this "enables a rich donor to trigger 250 times as much public funding as a poor donor who may only give $1...
...Would Richard Nixon have been defeated in 1968 if the campaign finance law had been in effect...
...Both the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee have expressed their pleasure with this bill, noting that it allows them to compete fairly...
...The voting record reflects Grand Rapids...
...or one $35,000 contribution for a Senate campaign...
...The question is not whether it goes far enough, but whether it goes in the right direction...
...And it is quite legal and proper for Senator Jackson to use them directly for his Senate duties and thus indirectly for his Presidential campaign...
...Thus the Socialist Workers party recently sought exemption from a Minnesota disclosure law, citing past harassment of party supporters by the FBI...
...The Democrat who managed the bill in the House said: "I do not know whether it is constitutional or not...
...Yet the final limit is low enough to prevent effective challenges in some districts...
...Representatives who are running for re-election are given no handicap-despite their built-in advantages of Congressional staff, district offices, Library of Congress research service, government-supported newsletters, and so forth...
...Candidates running in Presidential primaries will be entitled to public funding on a matching basis once they have raised $100,000 in relatively small, private contributions from at least 20 states...
...The new law also discriminates against poor and middle-income candidates...
...The passage of the campaign finance act and its approval and support by the Democratic and Republican parties raises further questions as to the reliability of those parties and of their leaders as defenders of the Constitution and of democratic ideas...
...The conference committee deleted those provisions and gave no explanation for its action...
Vol. 101 • January 1975 • No. 12
