Forum:Campaign Finance
From Campaigns Wikia
Campaign Finance is a critical topic as how people are elected determines who they determine is important. If they are elected based on how much money they can raise, policy decisions will favor those who gave them money. If they are elected based on grass-roots support, policy decisions will favor the little guy.
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[edit] Positions
[edit] Author?
Who wrote this page to begin with?
[edit] Status Quo
Currently, recognized parties each recieve public campaign funding from the federal government as well as privately raised funds. To become a recognized party, a party's candidate must receive at least 5% of the popular vote.
There has been an outcry in recent years over the effect that campaign contributions have had on policy decisions. In response, several camps have arisen around the ideas of further regulation of the current system, elections paid for entirely by the state, and elections paid for by private entities.
[edit] Contribution Regulations
Currently, there are regulations on how much money can be spent from personal estate, received from individuals, and received from corporations. There are loopholes to be exploited allowing larger contributions.
[edit] Publicly Funded
This is an attempt to eliminate corporate influence of policy by removing a legal form of bribery. If the politicians are no longer being supported by organizations, they don't feel a need to repay them, and are more likely to make decisions based on what the voters actually need and want. The money spent on campaigns is then theoretically recouped in improved policy and more competition for contracts.
It also has many side benefits. All candidates are on equal footing financially, allowing more young, energetic, and innovative people an honest chance of winning. As candidates can no longer spend vast sums of money hiring professionals, so they must depend on volunteers, bringing more people into the political process.
As with any attempt to restrict behavior, new loopholes will be found. Organizations 'supporting' a candidate could still raise and spend large sums of money for a particular candidate. 'Volunteers' could be paid under the table by supporting organizations. These and many more problems will need to be dealt with.
There are other problems with public financing of campaigns. It requires everyone to pay for campaigns that they may or may not support. It is also conducive to corruption, in that it allows the government to decide which campaigns are funded.
[edit] Privately Funded
I think privately funded campaigns are the only way to go. Someone said above about public funding of campaigns :
There are other problems with public financing of campaigns. It requires everyone to pay for campaigns that they may or may not support. It is also conducive to corruption, in that it allows the government to decide which campaigns are funded.
I know that putting the corrupt political class in charge of the funding of their own campaigns is utterly absurd. It is the show stopper of public finance. A moment's reflection on the likely outcomes : incumbents' privilege, money funneled to media outlets increasing by a factor of ten, all-campaigning all-the-time... I shudder to think of it. Only the most disingenuous could even suggest such a thing. Or a member of the entrenched political class, of course.
Even without the ten-fold increase in money thrown away on media campaigns far too much money is now spent on campaign disinformation. For that is what advertising is, disinformation.
And someone below has suggested what also appeared to me to be a very simple and valuable insight : Only registered voters should be able to donate to any political campaign, PAC etc.
So please see a Proposed 28thAmendment on Campaign Finance for what I think would be solution to our problem. And help me out. This is a wiki after all.
Jfmxl 12:02, 4 November 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Public (Free) Advertising
The ridiculous and ever rising amounts of money necessary to run for office are primarily spent on television advertising. I would like to see public ownership of the airwaves translate into free commercials for all candidates.
[edit] Discussion
-The correct answer to campaign financing is that voters should pressure candidates to do equal time with one other (any other) competing candidate for any TV spot, even if only one candidate can afford the spot. 30 seconds for me and 30 seconds for you. Think about it, and you might discover a dozen reasons why it would be the best solution. Charlie Jones, Technidigm.org 66.160.7.82 04:00, 6 November 2006 (UTC)
-My suggestion is that it is too difficult to constrain spending, but sufficient to legislate (and enforce) that all sources and uses of funding be disclosed. I think that ALL private funding should be eliminated.
-I think that campaigns should be free to do what they want. There is no grounds for restricting our freedom to support our candidates with money. If the voters have a problem with someone's campaign, then they shouldn't vote for that person. Millenniumman 21:33, 7 July 2006 (UTC)
-Most people don't know how any particular campaign is funded, so they can't make that decision. All we as voters are supposed to see are the shiny, clean comercials that are on TV. If you want to support a particular candidate, you can give your time, not your money. I do find it unfortunate that this will be an issue divided along the center aisle, as republican candidates recieve more financial support than democrats. Mkhulu 7 July 2006
-It is their duty as voters to find out. If they can't then they should communicate that, and if it remains unchanged, they vote for someone else. It is the voters' duty to find the best candidate and vote. Millenniumman 02:29, 8 July 2006 (UTC)
-Would there be interest in reform that required some form of disclosure of funding on commercials or other propaganda materials? Exactly how this would be implemented is not clear, but something along these lines could at least help to make this issue clearer to the average voter. Something like every propaganda material must list dollar amount of corporate sponsors, dollar amount of individual sponsors, and a website for details? -Kbal11 02:37, 8 July 2006 (UTC)
Only registered voters should be able to donate to any political campaign, PAC etc.
