Campaign Finance

Our long national nightmare has just begun. There is now little doubt that the next three years will bring one revelation after another about the magnitude of congressional corruption. Democrats will relish this prospect, and "reform" will be an inevitable theme of the next two election cycles. But some political scandals lead to change, while others dominate the headlines for a year and leave no trace. Why? Some of it has to do with managing the media, but it also… more

The Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002 was signed into law in March. Much has taken place in the subsequent months to challenge the very existence and meaning of the law. Numerous plaintiffs, led by Senator Mitch McConnell, have sued the government claiming that the soft-money ban and campaign advertising provisions are unconstitutional. The Federal Election Commission, tasked with interpreting and enforcing the law, seems destined to misinterpret or ignore the Congressional intent to ban soft money and… more

Senator John McCain will outline a new bill that would provide vouchers for political candidates to buy time on the nation's broadcast media, funded by a small fee on broadcasters who currently pay nothing to use the public airwaves. Broadcasters were given licenses -- at no cost -- to use spectrum now valued at $250 billion in return for in-kind "public interest obligations," such as educational and civic programming. However, the industry has increasingly shirked these obligations… more