2008 Woodie Awards
Point / Counterpoint
Campaign finance reform
Issue date: 5/4/04 Section: Editorials
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Dems
It's quite difficult to have any discussion on campaign finance reform without first putting it in the context the upcoming election.
We can expect to hear republicans attacking Kerry and accusing him of breaking the law. This is to be expected. The Republicans have grown accustomed to inciting fear and spreading blatant mistruths in the search of political gain.
The GOP will undoubtedly accuse the Kerry campaign of coordinating with groups such as the MoveOn Political Action Committee - which would be illegal under current campaign finance laws. There has been no such coordination between the Kerry campaign and any such PAC. Republicans charge that democratic leaning groups such as MoveOn are illegal, yet the Republican Party somehow manages to forget that there are dozens of Republican and anti-Kerry political action campaigns as well.
The ironic thing about this current debate is that the Republicans are accusing Kerry of breaking the same law they fought so hard against. Back then, the Republicans even took the law to the Supreme Court. Sen. John McCain and Sen. Russell Feingold worked for years to introduce campaign finance reform.
They were consistently defeated by the majority Republicans. In 1997, for example, all 45 democratic senators voted in favor of campaign finance reform while only a miniscule number of Republicans supported it. Trent Lott, the Republican Senate Majority Leader at the time, famously proclaimed that "campaign finance reform is not going to pass this year." Democrats kept up the fight for several years until the law was finally passed. Upon the law's passage, the Republican Party had an army of lawyers ready to challenge it in the courts. They claimed that finance reform was unconstitutional. Unfortunately for GOP lawyers, the Supreme Court did not agree and deemed that the law, which the Democratic Party backed, was completely constitutional.
Another truth in this matter is that the campaign finance reform bill hurt Democrats much more than it hurt the Republicans. Nevertheless, Democrats still voted in favor of it.
It's quite difficult to have any discussion on campaign finance reform without first putting it in the context the upcoming election.
We can expect to hear republicans attacking Kerry and accusing him of breaking the law. This is to be expected. The Republicans have grown accustomed to inciting fear and spreading blatant mistruths in the search of political gain.
The GOP will undoubtedly accuse the Kerry campaign of coordinating with groups such as the MoveOn Political Action Committee - which would be illegal under current campaign finance laws. There has been no such coordination between the Kerry campaign and any such PAC. Republicans charge that democratic leaning groups such as MoveOn are illegal, yet the Republican Party somehow manages to forget that there are dozens of Republican and anti-Kerry political action campaigns as well.
The ironic thing about this current debate is that the Republicans are accusing Kerry of breaking the same law they fought so hard against. Back then, the Republicans even took the law to the Supreme Court. Sen. John McCain and Sen. Russell Feingold worked for years to introduce campaign finance reform.
They were consistently defeated by the majority Republicans. In 1997, for example, all 45 democratic senators voted in favor of campaign finance reform while only a miniscule number of Republicans supported it. Trent Lott, the Republican Senate Majority Leader at the time, famously proclaimed that "campaign finance reform is not going to pass this year." Democrats kept up the fight for several years until the law was finally passed. Upon the law's passage, the Republican Party had an army of lawyers ready to challenge it in the courts. They claimed that finance reform was unconstitutional. Unfortunately for GOP lawyers, the Supreme Court did not agree and deemed that the law, which the Democratic Party backed, was completely constitutional.
Another truth in this matter is that the campaign finance reform bill hurt Democrats much more than it hurt the Republicans. Nevertheless, Democrats still voted in favor of it.