Abstract

The New Money Game

The author argues that recent campaign finance reforms not go far enough in protecting the interests of poor and minority Americans. Now that the Supreme Court has upheld the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), better known as the McCain-Feingold law, by a 5-to-4 majority, is the need for campaign finance reform over? A surprising number of people seem to think so. First there are members of Congress, who are said to be experiencing "reform fatigue," overwhelmed by the technicalities of the law they passed. Then there are the cynics in the press who have been saying all along that campaign reform can't work. Now they point to the recent emergence of independent committees, known as Section 527 organizations after the relevant part of the IRS tax code, as proving their point. These committees are funded with soft money from wealthy donors like philanthropist George Soros. All these people are wrong. First of all, Congress cannot and should not stop now. All BCRA does is end the raising and spending of unlimited soft-money donations by federal party committees and candidates running for federal office and constrain the financing of some ads aimed at helping or hurting candidates. But now Congress ought to deal with the fact that the remaining system of financing campaigns is grossly unfair and unrepresentative.