Whats campaign reform?

Question

Whats campaign reform?

Answer 1

Michael, you have asked a very interesting question for Americans.  We have two competing political issues.  One is the idea that every person's power to influence the direction of their government should be equal to every other person's power -on person, one vote.  Yet, we know that those people with lots of money can use some of that money to gain more influence than those who don't have lost of money.  So, we try to legislate some restrictions on how much money a person can use to influence politicians and what they can and cannot do with that money.  BUT, then there is that first amendment right of freedom of speech, that goes to the poor and wealthy alike.  How can we regulate the wealthy person's use of their money to advance their political opinion without taking away some of their first amendment rights?  That's the dilemma of campaign reforms.

Answer 2

Campaign finance reform would require legislation that would limit the number of dollars that could be spent, in total, on behalf of any one candidate.

Attempts, in the past have been

over ruled, by the US Supreme Court.

Answer 3

Campaing finance reform began as backlash to horror of Watergate with FECA in 1974, which has been subsequently modernized by the Supreme Court and later efforts like McCain-Feingold.

What FECA did was 1. cap individual contributions for federal campaigns at $1000 per season (up to $2000 if one donates first in the primaries and again in the general), 2. limit PAC contributions to $5000 for PAC's, 3. prevent rich candidates from being allowed to spend all their money on their campaign (this was subsequently ruled unconstitutional, allowing phenomena like Mitt Romney and Ross Perot to later emerge), 4. limit how much money can be raised overall b4 federal matching funds are removed, and 5. require complete disclosure of donors and their contributions to the agency the FEC.

McCain lobbied since 1995 for rerom that finally passed 7 yrs later in 2002, specifically attempting to reduce the influence of monied/ special interests under the PAC/ soft money system, to render all campaigns to being "grass roots" efforts led my the masses rather than the few.

What McCain-Feingold did was 1. modernize the individual cap to $2000 per season adjustable to inflation, so by now the cap is $2300 (aka you could donate $2300 to Obama now during the primary season and again when it's just he vs McCain), and 2. try to reduce PAC influence by forbidding any special interests to run ads indirectly for or against a candidate w/in 60 days of an election. What this means is that, if the NRA wants McCain elected president, any ads they release touting his voting record are allowed only if they air more than two months b4 elction day. Otherwise this speech is not "free," its decidedly political- at least that's what John Mac and Russ Feingold thought when they wrote it.

I hope this helps- we just learned about it in AP Gov't.

Answer 4

Campaign Forum is a series of rallies, speeches, and events are held in a public square or marketplace in a city where business is conducted and the law courts are situated, which are intended to persuade voters to vote for a specific politician or party.