[EL] Why campaign spending is protected - in action

Sun Oct 11 13:16:07 PDT 2015

It is REALLY interesting that no one so far appears willing to address the various state and local campaign finance systems and proposals I have noted that would enable and encourage Americans OTHER  than the the 1% of the 1% to participate in financing Presidential candidates ..perhaps silence here means these various suggestions are so obvious and so welcome that they do not merit much discussion??

However, although I continue to believe that providing ways to increase the political speech of most Americans is the most needed reform given what is happening right now. I am also willing to respond to questions about restrictions in place or proposed. Basically, I support Buckley's line between speaking on one's own ( expenditures by individuals) and donations to fund the speech of others ( contributions). I continue to believe that Citizens United was wrongly decided ( for many reasons, not the least of which is that corporations are not individuals or voters and shareholders have usually not approved this use of their money). I also continue to believe that SpeechNow was wrongly decided. The funding of SuperPacs which we are all seeing now and which the NY Times reported on in the article which started this email exchange is contributions, not speech to the public by those individuals writing the checks,  as others have ably noted on this List Serve.

I believe that pretty much everyone on this List Serve believes in SOME restrictions on political contributions ( some forms of foreign national funding comes to mind). The ongoing debate is over which contribution limits are appropriate. Is there any such consensus on the proposals to increase political speech through incentives to encourage greater participation in campaign contributions by the 99 2/3rd % of Americans who do not currently appear on the FEC contributor data base?

Trevor

Sent from my iPad

On Oct 11, 2015, at 2:12 PM, "David Keating" <dkeating at campaignfreedom.org<mailto:dkeating at campaignfreedom.org>> wrote:

OK, so you didn’t say so here in one of these emails, but you’ve long advocated just that.  If you’ve changed your mind, let’s hear it.

This is your proposal:

APPLY THE EXISTING CONTRIBUTION LIMITS THAT APPLY TO PACS TO
SUPER PACS

Amend Section 315(a) of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. § 441(a)) by
adding at the end the following new paragraph: “(9) For purposes of the limitations imposed
by paragraphs (1)(C), (2)(C), and (3)(B) on the amount of contributions which may be made
by any person to a political committee, a contribution made to a political committee which
accepts donations or contributions that do not comply with the contribution or source
prohibitions under this Act (or made to any account of a political committee which is
established for the purpose of accepting such donations or contributions) shall be treated in
the same manner as a contribution made to any other political committee to which such
paragraphs apply.”

https://represent.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/AACA-Full-Provisions.pdf<https://represent.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/AACA-Full-Provisions.pdf>

It “was crafted by former Federal Election Commission chairman Trevor Potter…”
http://anticorruptionact.org/faq/<http://anticorruptionact.org/faq/>

David
_________________________________________________
David Keating | President | Center for Competitive Politics
124 S. West Street, Suite 201 | Alexandria, VA 22314
703-894-6799 (direct) | 703-894-6800 | 703-894-6811 Fax
www.campaignfreedom.org<http://www.campaignfreedom.org/>

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu<mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Trevor Potter
Sent: Sunday, October 11, 2015 1:48 PM
To: Scarberry, Mark
Cc: law-election at UCI.edu<mailto:law-election at UCI.edu>
Subject: Re: [EL] Why campaign spending is protected - in action

Mark

I completely agree with you that Barrack Obama killed the general election Presidential funding system, just as George Bush's failure to participate in 2000 ( followed by John Kerry's on the Democratic side in 2004) killed the primary matching find system. That history, though, doesn't end the discussion-- it starts it, and points to a bipartisan responsibility for fixing it.

But I am puzzled by the rest of your response-- I did not say anything about restricting anyone's speech ( including but not limited to the news media's). I wrote about increasing speech, and bringing the other 99.9 % of Americans into the game....

Trevor

Sent from my iPhone

On Oct 11, 2015, at 12:44 PM, Scarberry, Mark <Mark.Scarberry at pepperdine.edu<mailto:Mark.Scarberry at pepperdine.edu<mailto:Mark.Scarberry at pepperdine.edu%3cmailto:Mark.Scarberry at pepperdine.edu>>> wrote:

Trevor,

My point was that it is dangerous for government to be permitted to regulate spending. It's interesting to note that the first presidential candidate to refuse public money so that he could spend unlimited amounts, our current President, is the leader of the party that is so outraged by the Court's decisions. So who is responsible for the demise of the public funding system?

Would you regulate spending by news media, who are thought by many (most?) people to be extraordinarily partisan, and to engage in herd-like repetition of memes (like this morning's characterization of competition for the position of Speaker as Republican "chaos")?

Do you support return of the Fairness Doctrine?

Mark

Mark S. Scarberry
Pepperdine University School of Law

Sent from my iPad

On Oct 11, 2015, at 8:28 AM, "Trevor Potter" <tpotter at capdale.com<mailto:tpotter at capdale.com<mailto:tpotter at capdale.com%3cmailto:tpotter at capdale.com>>> wrote:

Mark

I am interested in your apparent assumption that the only alternative to a infinitesimal tiny percentage of wealthy Americans dominating the process by which we choose our President is restrictions on speech.

Your post says: "I will say that I don't like rich people having so much influence; but the cure -- government regulation of the amount of money that can be spent to put forward a message -- may be worse than the disease. (Power of all kinds is dangerous, to state the obvious.)"

>From 1976 through 1996 we had a functioning system of public funding in both primary and general elections for President. It included a " matching" component to double the value of small ( up to $250) contributions. This system is widely credited with enabling Ronald Reagan to win the 1980 Republican nomination despite some early primary losses that temporarily dried up his fundraising-- the matching funds arrived in time to finance wins in later primaries. As a result of the Buckley decision, individuals could still spend an unlimited amount of their own money on political speech-- but they had to speak themselves rather than give it to SuperPacs , which did not exist in today's form because of contribution ( not expenditure) limits.

It is interesting that ALL of the discussion about the NY Times article so far on the ListServe has related to claims of " silencing" the speech of the highlighted 158 families, rather than enhancing the speech of 100 million or more others. It seems to me that both sides of this debate-- those concerned about preserving the ability of the ultra wealthy to speak/ spend? without limit in elections , and those concerned about the dominant role such unlimited money provides to a tiny handful of Americans-- should agree on the virtues of proposals to enhance the speech of all other Americans.

As a start, we have the model of the Presidential public funding system, which still exists in law, if not in reality: it could be reformed and improved. There are bills pending to do so. We have the model of the NYC 6-1 match of small contributions. We have the Minnesota model, where political contributors of small sums fill out a simple state form and immediately receive direct reimbursement of the contribution from the state. We have a proposal from Prof. Richard Painter, formerly of the George W. Bush White House, for a $100 " first fruits of their labor" taxpayer rebate, provided to all registered voters in the form of a voucher divisible and transferable to candidates or political parties-- sort of like a Starbucks card.

All of these seem to be possible ways to address the problem-- a problem that you describe as " rich people having so much influence" --by expanding speech, not restricting it. It would likely produce a flood of new political speech-- surely music to the ears of those who say we need more, not less political speech. And any of these proposals ( or all, for that matter) would strengthen the voice of ordinary Americans in our political process-- surely something to be devoutly hoped for and worked for in this era of citizen disaffection with our political system, which poll after poll shows voters believe has been captured by the very few ( such as those in the NY Times article).

Trevor Potter

Sent from my iPad

> On Oct 10, 2015, at 9:11 PM, "Scarberry, Mark" <Mark.Scarberry at pepperdine.edu<mailto:Mark.Scarberry at pepperdine.edu<mailto:Mark.Scarberry at pepperdine.edu%3cmailto:Mark.Scarberry at pepperdine.edu>>> wrote:
>
>
> I will say that I don't like rich people having so much influence; but the cure -- government regulation of the amount of money that can be spent to put forward a message -- may be worse than the disease. (Power of all kinds is dangerous, to state the obvious.)

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