TPM covers American Leadership Project’s most recent activity.
Although all analysts give Hillary Clinton long odds to win the nomination, her major union backers and other big donors clearly haven’t given up.
Public Financing Attention in North Carolina
Public financing is getting attention in North Carolina.
Three major ex-politicians with ties to Nash County, two of whom are Republicans, have taken up the cause of campaign finance reform at both the state and federal levels.Former Republican N.C. Rep. Gene Arnold, former Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Valentine Jr. and former Republican lieutenant governor and U.S. Rep. Jim Gardner have united in a call to restructure the way political campaigns are funded.
Although most conservatives typically view campaign finance reform as detrimental to the election process, Gardner and Arnold joined Valentive by announcing in a letter to the media they are ready to buck the trend.
“When I first ran for Congress in 1964, it cost between $20,000 and $30,000 to run a quality congressional campaign,” said Gardner, who was the only North Carolina Republican elected lieutenant governor in the 20th century. “To have a chance at winning today, it costs in excess of millions of dollars. Things have gotten totally out of hand.”
Missouri Contribution Limits
This editorial discusses Missouri’s campaign finance law and advocates public financing.
This year the legal problems with removing contribution limits seem to have been resolved, and the current limits will be removed starting in August, after the primary election. Removing such limits is not an unreasonable step toward more transparency in our political system. Current contribution limits can be circumvented by passing large contributions through political committees that can give 10 times what individuals can contribute to any given candidate. This “wink-and-nod” system of legalized money laundering makes it hard for anyone to track exactly who is giving money to particular candidates. And with hundreds of committees through which contributions can be directed, a billionaire or millionaire can move essentially unlimited amounts of money to the candidate of their choice.