[EL] Freedom Caucus to Battle McConnell on Campaign Finance

Wed Dec 2 08:12:07 PST 2015

This is not the first time that some within the new ideological right (for lack of a better phrase) have aligned with the reform community on a regulatory issue. Tea Party groups were vocal and arguably quite consequential in seeing that the new Republican House majority in 2010 did not deauthorize the Office of Congressional Ethics. See http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/129855-ohio-tea-party-splits-with-boehner-on-ethics. I recognize that internal policing in the House and Senate raises entirely different issues than campaign finance regulation. But a common thread running through both issues is skepticism about incumbent self-dealing (see, e.g., http://hotair.com/archives/2012/12/31/office-of-congressional-ethics-could-soon-be-silenced-by-those-it-investigates/). I wonder whether, in some cases, virulent anti-incumbent attitudes may trump (no pun intended) ideological beliefs about the proper scope of government regulation.

=B.

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From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Rick Hasen
Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2015 10:57 AM
To: law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] Freedom Caucus to Battle McConnell on Campaign Finance

I'm surprised because of the ideological valence of the issue. That is, I expect members of the "Freedom Caucus" to support full deregulation of the campaign finance process.

(I'm also skeptical of some of the arguments about polarization and campaign finance you make in your book, but that is an issue for another time.)

On 12/2/15 7:54 AM, Ray La Raja wrote:
Rick, regarding the news that they Freedom Caucus is opposed to McConnell's bid to loosen party financing, why are you surprised (as you note at your blog)?   Channeling more money through the parties should diminish the clout of partisan factions at the extremes because it strengthens the hand of party leadership.  This is exactly the point Brian Schaffner and I make in our recent book, "Campaign Finance and Political Polarization: When Purists Prevail" https://www.press.umich.edu/4882255/campaign_finance_and_political_polarization<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.press.umich.edu_4882255_campaign-5Ffinance-5Fand-5Fpolitical-5Fpolarization&d=CwMD-g&c=XRWvQHnpdBDRh-yzrHjqLpXuHNC_9nanQc6pPG_SpT0&r=liAVgWK_6sjbUg6EC0f0khf6MyboEmFwaqEV2P3ukag&m=DjtRuYLxkr-gybKjIXAj0ZwQXAjOsGFciivFOx6MPFQ&s=YrZnJzvEPRYptX2X6vNDsQhknCWTOjg9PZimWU2SILs&e=>

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Department of Political Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
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