[EL] I am surprised those upset by McCutcheon don't talk more about HR 20

[Richard Winger]

HR 20 was introduced earlier this year to provide for public funding for candidates for US House.  I am surprised those who are upset by the McCutcheon decision don't use the publicity to boost HR 20.  It has 142 co-sponsors, but only one co-sponsor has signed on since the McCutcheon decision came out.

There is plenty of evidence, both scholarly and anecdotal, that a candidate with a fairly substantial amount of money to spend, combined with a winning message, can defeat an opponent who has much more money.


I support the McCutcheon decision and I also support public funding.  Probably everyone on this list agrees that criminal defendants who can't afford an attorney should be provided with a public defender.  Public defenders are paid with public money.  That expenditure of public money is necessary if there is to be a fair trial.  By analogy, an election isn't fair if some of the candidates who are potentially electable if they only had enough money to disseminate a winning message don't have much campaign funding.

Public funding seems to be successful for legislative candidates in Maine and Arizona.  I advocate a similar system for congressional elections.  Not all public funding schemes are successful, and although opponents of public funding frequently point out flaws in public funding in New York city, New York, and Connecticut, it does not follow logically that no public funding can work well.


I support the McCutcheon decision, and the elimination of all restrictions on individual donations to political parties and candidates, because I am more afraid of a government that tells individuals what they can spend their money on, than I am afraid of a system with unequal financial resources for different candidates and parties.  Proponents of severe campaign restrictions have never, in my opinion, been able to overcome the objection that since it is legitimate for newspapers to spend money boosting some candidates and bashing others, there is no way to draw the line between newspaper spending and all other types of "press" spending.

 
Richard Winger
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