Like water, money in politics will find the path of least resistance.
Efforts to clean up campaign finances have only made matters worse. Colorado’s Amendment 27 and the federal McCain-Feingold law gave us 527s — often secretly funded groups with benign-sounding names that level vicious attacks on candidates.
And now, with federal regulators clamping down on the Internal Revenue Code loophole that allows for 527s, political consultants are funneling money into 501c(4)s, which further shield the public from the donors behind the nastiest campaign ads.
With 2008 expected to be a hot political year, it’s looking like the first loser will be the voter, who will be forced to sift through nasty-grams and attack ads with no way of knowing who’s behind the nonsense. There has to be a better way to finance elections in the 21st century.
State and federal lawmakers have tried for years to check the flood of campaign contributions and to make the system more transparent. But such laws have only propelled creative political activists to look for loopholes.
“In general, the problem with campaign finance reform is that for every reform that has come up, interested parties have found a way to get around it,” University of Colorado political scientist Michael Kanner says.
Some states are moving toward public financing. Connecticut just passed a public finance law and Maine and Arizona already have their own. But there are ways around that, too, Kanner says. Individuals could form a corporation and run their own political ads without disclosure, even under public financing laws. Public financing also would give the government the power to decide who is a valid candidate by setting restrictions on how much they can or cannot raise.
Still, the ongoing efforts to circumvent campaign finance regulations — or at the very least, the spirit of those laws — are troubling. Supporters of presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and John McCain have solicited donations for the independent 501(c)4s, even though the candidates have frowned on it. In Colorado, the involvement of nonprofits in electoral politics is gaining strength.
We want transparency from our elected officials and this is not the way to get it. Raising money through secret organizations and individuals is a slap in the face for voters.
In this high-tech world, we should demand instant disclosure from candidates and campaign committees. Within 72 hours of receiving a donation, it should be posted electronically for discerning voters to scrutinize.
Instead, political organizations and campaigns are seeking ways to give voters even less information.
Given the consequences of previous attempts to “clean up” campaign financing, we’re leery of new moves. But a push for more transparency is certainly in order.
