[EL] What are Donald Trump’s Views on Campaign Finance Regulation?

Thu Mar 24 12:19:36 PDT 2016

Thanks, Tyler, I hadn’t seen that quote about public financing.

Sean

From: Tyler Creighton [mailto:tyler at rethinkmedia.org] 
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2016 2:34 PM
To: Sean Parnell <sean at impactpolicymanagement.com>
Cc: Steve Klein <stephen.klein.esq at gmail.com>; Pildes, Rick <pildesr at mercury.law.nyu.edu>; law-election at uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] What are Donald Trump’s Views on Campaign Finance Regulation?

Most Donald Trump quotes from the campaign trail about campaign finance are available here: http://talkingaboutmoneyin2016.tumblr.com/tagged/Donald+Trump

Including “Enh. I think it’s fine. <http://talkingaboutmoneyin2016.tumblr.com/post/126096187558/enh-i-think-its-fine> ” in response to a question about public financing. 

Also <http://talkingaboutmoneyin2016.tumblr.com/post/127245210438/well-i-think-this-whole-thing-with-pacs-is> , "I don’t mind the money coming in. Let it be transparent. Let them talk, but let there be total transparency.”

Tyler Creighton | ReThink Media <http://rethinkmedia.org/>  | Senior Media Associate

 <mailto:tyler at rethinkmedia.org> tyler at rethinkmedia.org | (925) 548-2189 mobile |  <http://www.twitter.com/tylercreighton> @TylerCreighton

On Thu, Mar 24, 2016 at 2:18 PM, Sean Parnell <sean at impactpolicymanagement.com <mailto:sean at impactpolicymanagement.com> > wrote:

Well, he’ll have to stand in line behind Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who apparently wants me in jail (or maybe just bankrupted) for dissenting from global warming orthodoxy. I just got one book deal, maybe I ought to pitch another on all the people who seem to think I need to be punished by the state (working title: “I Aim to Misbehave <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VR3Av9qfZc> ”).

Sean

From: Steve Klein [mailto:stephen.klein.esq at gmail.com <mailto:stephen.klein.esq at gmail.com> ] 
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2016 2:10 PM
To: Sean Parnell <sean at impactpolicymanagement.com <mailto:sean at impactpolicymanagement.com> >
Cc: Pildes, Rick <pildesr at mercury.law.nyu.edu <mailto:pildesr at mercury.law.nyu.edu> >; Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu <mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu> >; law-election at uci.edu <mailto:law-election at uci.edu> 

Subject: Re: [EL] What are Donald Trump’s Views on Campaign Finance Regulation?

No problem, wish there were more, but, well, in-depth policy specifics haven’t exactly been The Donald’s thing in 2016.

A bold statement, Sean, considering The Donald’s views on libel law. 

On Thu, Mar 24, 2016 at 2:01 PM, Sean Parnell <sean at impactpolicymanagement.com <mailto:sean at impactpolicymanagement.com> > wrote:

No problem, wish there were more, but, well, in-depth policy specifics haven’t exactly been The Donald’s thing in 2016.

Sean

From: Pildes, Rick [mailto:pildesr at mercury.law.nyu.edu <mailto:pildesr at mercury.law.nyu.edu> ] 
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2016 1:07 PM
To: Sean Parnell <sean at impactpolicymanagement.com <mailto:sean at impactpolicymanagement.com> >; 'Rick Hasen' <rhasen at law.uci.edu <mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu> >; law-election at uci.edu <mailto:law-election at uci.edu> 
Subject: RE: [EL] What are Donald Trump’s Views on Campaign Finance Regulation?

Sean, thanks for sending that information.

Best, 

Rick

Richard H. Pildes

Sudler Family Professor of Constitutional Law

NYU School of Law

40 Washington Square South, NY, NY 10012

212 998-6377 <tel:212%20998-6377> 

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 Sean Parnell
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2016 1:01 PM
To: 'Rick Hasen'; law-election at uci.edu <mailto:law-election at uci.edu> 
Subject: Re: [EL] What are Donald Trump’s Views on Campaign Finance Regulation?

One of my clients, the Leadership Project for America, has attempted to summarize and document the views and histories of all the presidential candidates on a wide range of issues, including campaign finance regulation. He hasn’t said much of late, but he did address the topic in his 2000 book The America We Deserve. Below I’ve cut and pasted how we summarized his views on campaign finance:

Trump has suggested he views contributions to candidates as an effective way to buy access, influence, and favorable decisions, <http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/lott-smith-trump-big-lie-buying-politicians-article-1.2329706> 177 but has otherwise been quiet in recent years about limits on campaign contributions and political speech. In his 2000 book The America We Deserve he favored a ban on soft-money contributions to political parties, opposed contribution limits, and supported “full and fast” disclosure of campaign contributions. <http://stanfordpolitics.com/2015/09/trumps-dirty-dance/> 178

Link here <http://leadershipprojectforamerica.org/candidate/donald-trump/>  (you’ll need to go to the ‘American Exceptionalism’ section and scroll down to ‘Religious Liberty & Free Speech”).

Occasionally, of course, Trump has indicated he no longer believes what he once did on an issue, so this may not reflect his current thinking, but it is the most recent available as far as I know.

Sean Parnell

President, Impact Policy Management LLC

Alexandria, Virginia

571-289-1374 <tel:571-289-1374> 

sean at impactpolicymanagement.com <mailto:sean at impactpolicymanagement.com> 

 <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=81159> What are Donald Trump’s Views on Campaign Finance Regulation?

Posted on  <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=81159> March 23, 2016 3:01 pm by  <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=7> Richard Pildes

Has Donald Trump expressed any position, or been asked his position, on how elections should be financed?

We know he thinks large contributions are corrupting ( <http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trumps-surprisingly-honest-lessons-big-money-politics/story?id=32993736> “I give to everybody. When they call, I give. And you know what, when I need something from them two years later, three years later, I call them. They are there for me. That’s a broken system.”).  We know he considers SuperPacs a “ <http://www.cnhttp/www.cnbc.com/2015/10/26/donald-trump-latest-super-pacs-are-a-scam.htmlbc.com/2015/10/26/donald-trump-latest-super-pacs-are-a-scam.html> scam.”  And a significant part of his appeal to supporters in the primaries is that he is self-funding his campaign.  As others have pointed out, on money in politics, he sounds not all that different from Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton.

So what is his position on how to fix the system he considers broken?  Would he favor public financing?  Would he favor caps on how much outside groups or individuals could spend, which would require overturning Buckley?  Or caps on how much campaigns could spend too?  Or other approaches?

I ask in all seriousness.  A while back, I noted that historically, the demands to regulate the role of money in American democracy had often united populist forces on both the right and left of the political spectrum.  The Jacksonian tradition, to which Trump can perhaps be considered an heir, was centrally about reducing the perceived influence of big money on American democracy.  On the Supreme Court, Justices from the Western United States who usually were considered somewhat conservative (White and O’Connor) or conservative (Rehnquist) had voted to uphold campaign finance regulations.  In more recent decades, the issue became far more polarized in partisan terms, at least among elected officials.

Trump’s indictment of the current system has struck a bell with his supporters.  Knowing what he would propose to fix the system would be of considerable interest.

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