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Taxpayer Financed Campaigns
Bob Bauer makes a respectable case for "clean elections"
Published on February 25, 2009 11:20 AM
Category: Taxpayer Financed Campaigns
Writing today at his blog More Soft Money Hard Law, uber-campaign finance attorney Bob Bauer discusses so-called "clean elections" or "public financing" of campaigns, what we here at CCP generally call taxpayer-funded political campaigns or welfare for politicians (sometimes we even use terms like "fraud" and "scam," if the rhetoric from advocates of "clean elections" schemes seems particularly outlandish and unsubstantiated at the moment).
CCP blogs at The Hill on “Clean Elections” campaign donors
Published on February 25, 2009 06:00 AM
Category: Taxpayer Financed Campaigns
On Monday CCP released Special Interests, Partisan Pouts, and the Usual Suspects, our Special Report on donors to New Jersey's so-called "clean elections" candidates. Yesterday we were asked to blog about it at The Hill, one of the leading political newspapers in Washington, DC. You can read the post at: "Clean Elections" No Barrier to "Special Interests"
Research shows interest group support for "clean elections" candidates in NJ
Published on February 24, 2009
Category: Taxpayer Financed Campaigns
The Center for Competitive Politics (CCP) released a study yesterday analyzing donors to so-called "clean elections" candidates in New Jersey. The study found that donors to candidates funded by taxpayers have strong ties to interest groups, undermining promises by proponents that taxpayer-funded campaigns will eliminate the influence of such groups. You can read more by going here: CCP releases study on interest groups and 'clean elections'
Arizona considers repeal of "Clean Elections"
Published on February 23, 2009 06:00 AM
Category: Taxpayer Financed Campaigns
It's been clear to most observers for quite some time that so-called "clean elections" programs in Arizona and Maine have failed to live up to their promises. More appropriately considered welfare for politicians, "clean elections" diverts scarce taxpayer dollars from public priorities in a futile effort to insulate candidates from the allegedly "corrupting" influence of citizens who wish to support them. Arizona first adopted "clean elections" for the 2000 election cycle. In the time since "cl
Of Democrats, Money, Good Government and Freedom
Published on February 5, 2009
Category: Contributions & Limits, Other, Taxpayer Financed Campaigns
Mark Schmitt is an old line campaign finance "reformer" who has, in recent years, slowly been coming to the recognition that maybe money in politics ain't all bad. He's recently written this column for the American Prospect, in which he suggests that reformers (such as he) need to rethink some of their old positions. "The election created a paradox [for the "reform" community]," writes Schmitt. "If there were a causal relationship between big money
Hysterical "Reformers" Challenged on DailyKos, OpenLeft
Published on January 29, 2009 06:00 AM
Category: Faulty Assumptions, Taxpayer Financed Campaigns
One of the things I've noted in the past is that so-called campaign finance "reformers" tend towards the hysterical and uncritical, willing to accept almost any argument at face value and latch onto any scandal and somehow twist it into a reason for further limits on citizens First Amendment rights of speech, assembly, and petition. And if it isn't a scandal, then by the time their press operation is through it will be! By and large I believe this is true, with a very few notable
Waiting for the “reformers” to find the elephant that isn’t in the room
Published on January 27, 2009 06:00 AM
Category: Faulty Assumptions, Pay to Play, Taxpayer Financed Campaigns
Late last week, former Republican Majority Leader of the New York State Senate Joseph Bruno was indicted for corruption. According to the indictment, Bruno was using his position to steer contracts to companies that employed him as a "consultant." Missing from the indictment, as is usually the case with elected officials who wind up in this sort of trouble, is any mention of campaign contributions. Somehow, however, I'm certain that Bruno's indictment will shortly become exhibit
And are the "special interests" riding unicorns, or flying carpets?
Published on January 23, 2009 06:00 AM
Category: Taxpayer Financed Campaigns
Much has been made by advocates for greater campaign finance restrictions of the ability of taxpayer-funded political campaigns, commonly called "clean elections" or "voter-owned elections" by advocates, to banish so-called "special interests" to the sidelines while elected officials untainted with contributions from these groups are able to "do the people's business," or whatever the platitude of the week is on this subject. So imagine my surprise to read
The Good and the Bad in the Maine Legislature (No Ugly, Yet)
Published on January 21, 2009
Category: Petition Rights, Taxpayer Financed Campaigns
Maine State Representative Richard Cebra has introduced legislation that would repeal the Pine Tree State's so-called "clean elections" program. First enacted in time for the 2000 election cycle, the program has failed on nearly every count: Taxpayers have not saved money under "clean elections"The number of lobbyists in Maine has not declined under "clean elections"The number of women elected under "clean elections" has actually declinedThe nu
New research from the John Locke Foundation
Published on January 14, 2009 05:09 PM
Category: Taxpayer Financed Campaigns
Fellow campaign freedom fighter Daren Bakst, the Legal and Regulatory Policy Analyst for the John Locke Foundation, has released a report on the impact of Davis v. FEC on North Carolina's misguided proposal for taxpayer-financed campaigns.The release announcing the report and the full report provide more information.
