Fair Elections hearing: "Times have changed"
By Josh Zaharoff
Posted on Wed Jun 20, 2007 at 04:07:33 PM EST
Times have changed, and so have I.
That was former Senator Warren Rudman's partial explanation, at today's hearing on the Fair Elections Now Act, for how he came around from opposition to
"unequivocally supporting public financing" and the Fair Elections bill now before the Senate Rules committee. Sitting on the second panel, he admitted that he'd grown so frustrated with the dominance of private money in politics that he found public financing to be the most sensible solution.
He wasn't alone. The bill's cosponsors, Senators Dick Durbin and Arlen Specter, described the same transformation from opponent to champion. Those conversions are what made today's Senate hearing so promising.
One other theme emerged: the skyrocketing cost of political campaign advertising that has driven much of the money chase. A big question mark thus far has been the position of Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, chair of the committee, who claimed she's open to the idea of public financing and clearly wants to stop funneling campaign cash straight to TV broadcasters. She opened the hearing by highlighting this trend:
Spending on broadcast political advertising has spiraled upwards since 1970... it is up 1200% in inflation-adjusted dollars since then.
Feinstein appeared to endorse all the reasons why we need a public financing system--corruption, the cost of campaigns and the need to raise huge sums of cash--yet wasn't ready to endorse the bill yet. So we'll need to keep the pressure on her to join as a cosponsor.
We also heard the standard-issue opposition talking points from Sen. Mitch McConnell, calling this "welfare for politicians" and claiming that the tax checkoff for presidential public financing represents an accurate poll of the American people--despite the fact that, when a full public financing system is explained, 74% of voters support it.
Most impressive was Senator Durbin, who outlined the need for a new system, the distrust of the voters, and the specific ways that his Fair Elections Now Act would take a significant step to restoring trust and improving the functioning of our democracy. He talked about when Teddy Roosevelt came before Congress one century ago and told them they need to fix the campaign finance system. Durbin's analysis:
I know the Senate moves slowly, but a century is long enough.
As is often the case, the senior Senator from Illinois is right: it's time to pass Fair Elections Now.
Tags: money in politics, fair elections now act, senate, rules committee, clean elections, public financing, dick durbin, arlen specter, warren rudman, mitch mcconnell (all tags)
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