Boston Globe today on McCain's cooling to the reform agenda as presidential candidate:
WASHINGTON - Senator John McCain has retreated from his longtime commitment to public financing of campaigns since he started planning his 2008 bid for the presidency, according to nonpartisan advocates who had hoped McCain would be a strong voice for reform during the most expensive presidential campaign in history...
McCain's campaign said the presumptive Republican nominee, who completed a fund-raising swing through western states Friday, has "a clear and long record" of supporting campaign finance reform, and has not recently advocated an expansion of public financing because it would be inappropriate for him to take a lead role in increasing funding for a program from which he could benefit.
But campaign finance reform advocates say they are distressed at what they see as McCain's abandonment of the issue at a time when supporters of reform most need bipartisan backing of efforts to control the influence of money in campaigns.
"Clearly, McCain has worked hard for a number of reforms, most notably BCRA" - the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act that bans big-money donations by labor unions, corporations, and wealthy individuals, said Arn Pearson, vice president for programs at Common Cause, an advocacy group. But "since he's decided to be a presidential candidate, he has backed off on taking public positions on those issues," imperiling reform efforts on Capitol Hill, Pearson said.
The Supreme Court heard arguments today in Wisconsin Right to Life v. FEC, a challenge to the provision in the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA, or the McCain-Feingold law) restricting special interest groups from using general funds to run "issue ads" in the days before an election.
More information about this provision and Common Cause's response to this challenge can be found here. Countless organizations on both sides of the issue have signed onto amicus briefs, including Common Cause, and even the editorial boards have weighed in (here and here, for example) - but we'll have to wait until probably June before hearing their decision.
The big question marks, as in a lot of the cases now coming before the Court, are new Justices Roberts and Alito. Common Cause was the leading force behind the substantive campaign finance reform that grew into BCRA, so we're paying very close attention to this situation and will, of course, keep you updated on how it develops.
The business of buying access stops for no one, federal investigations be damned.
An elite K Street corps of top political donors, undeterred by Justice Department investigations into campaign contributions by lobbyists, has given generously so far during this election cycle.
The majority of the 20 biggest lobbyist-donors say they believe in the political process and view the long list of contributions they make as part of the price of doing business. Each of these lobbyists donates more money than most Washington, D.C., households earn in a year - the average median household income was about $44,000 annually from 2002 to 2004, according to D.C. government statistics.
I guess you have to admire their perseverance, but these are the guys leading the pack on K Street. If they're not changing their ways, it's going to set a bad example for the lobbying masses.
While some lobbyists say they have been scared away from giving campaign donations in the current environment, most K Streeters in this elite class of top donors say that if anything has changed, it's simply that they have become even more conscientious about the rules.
Well, that's something. If they're going to lobby, it's nice that they finally feel obligated to pay attention to the law.
Common Blog
