The frustration of trying to pass laws to make things better is that clever politicians, consultants and lawyers always find ways to get around reformers’ best intentions.
Most electoral reforms try to dilute the influence of big money. Political action committees were an early, post-Watergate effort to broaden the base of contributors. They did, but they also led to the rise of PACs narrowly focused on single issues.
Campaign contribution restrictions in Colorado, coupled with federal-level 527 laws, have produced another nasty situation. Political groups organized under section 527 of the federal tax code have virtually no spending limits, but they must avoid contact with the candidate they’re supporting. So 527s spend their money pointing out the flaws in the opposition. It means more negative campaigning.
Bill Artist, a very successful Colorado lobbyist, says Common Cause should be called to account for this.
“They were the genius behind campaign reform, which has driven us to the ridiculous posture of 527s,” Artist wrote in an e-mail. “No one is happy – we are all screwed, and it will only get more negative and deeper in debt.”
Before the campaign reform amendment of 2002, Artist said, “we had ‘no limits’ with open disclosure; now we have ‘no limits’ with no disclosure, and no accountability. We are all losers – candidates, press, campaigns, mostly citizens.”
Every reform has its flaws, even such otherwise sterling fixes as the Sunshine Law for open government and the GAVEL amendment outlawing questionable legislative shortcuts.
Citizen initiatives don’t go through the rigorous, even rancorous debate of the legislature. All the input comes from people with the same mindset. In the legislature, people relish picking at the other side’s arguments.
That’s why citizen initiatives can be simplistic and naïve. Yet heavily debated and interpreted laws like those applying to 527 groups can be overly complicated and confusing.
My Aug. 27 column lauded TV spots that ran in 2004 supporting Bob Bacon’s successful state Senate campaign as a rare example of a positive 527 ad.
But Deborah Fallin of the Colorado Education Association says it left the impression the ads were a CEA product. They weren’t. A complaint against the CEA and its Poudre Valley affiliate focused on their recruitment of volunteers to work for Bacon. It didn’t mention Bacon or the ad, which was produced by a 527 not associated with the CEA.
“There are a thousand details and lots of them are really inside baseball, so it’s not surprising that it’s hard to keep it all straight,” Fallin wrote, somewhat forgivingly.
Another result of repeated “reforming” – in addition to the ever-sneakier evasions it spawns – is that it may discourage decent people from entering politics. Voters keep sending the message that politicians aren’t to be trusted, and “reformers” left and right offer a steady stream of initiatives for sending that message.
Pete Maysmith, just off a five-year run as director of Colorado Common Cause, doesn’t see it that way. Reform laws are not punitive, he says.
“Of course we haven’t totally solved the problem, but to say that campaign finance reform hasn’t made it better is ludicrous. Unlike Watergate, we no longer have bags of money changing hands.”
Maysmith is now Common Cause’s national director of state campaigns and organizations, still based in Denver – “my office moved 12 feet” – and still an effective advocate who manages to oppose without offending.
In his new national role, he’s still working on election reform, redistricting, open meetings, ethics and public campaign financing – and still convinced they make things better. “Voters see people breaking the public trust. They want their leaders to aspire to something better,” he said. “The laws we work to pass are aspirational … not designed to target individuals or politicians as a class. We believe in public service.”
But, he adds, “Good people get trapped in a bad system; we’re trying to make a better system.”
Fred Brown (punditfwb@aol.com), retired Capitol Bureau chief for The Denver Post, is also a political analyst for 9News.
