Do We Really Need Campaign Finance Reform?

Zocalo — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 08:01:27 +0000

By the time America’s next president is named this November, campaign spending for all the candidates who ran in the election is projected to total about $4.4 billion—on television ads alone. In the wake of Citizens United, the landmark 2010 Supreme Court case that loosened restrictions on political expenditures, campaign financing has gone through the roof. Super PACs and the country’s wealthiest of the wealthy contribute enormous amounts of money to campaigns, helping candidates fight their way into—and stay in—the national spotlight.

But to what extent can money buy power? Dismantling campaign finance laws can create more incentive for candidates to bend their will to the people who write the biggest checks. Yet money on its own clearly isn’t enough to win a presidential race. Jeb Bush’s super PAC has raised more money in the first half of 2015 than President Obama’s main super PAC did for the entire 2012 election cycle. But Bush is still trailing behind Donald Trump, whose media attention has allowed him to spend just a fraction of Bush’s costs on his campaign.

So when does money go from being necessary for a candidate’s voice to be heard to corrupting the political process? In advance of a January 12 Zócalo event, “What Will the Presidential Elections Cost Us?”, we asked a variety of political analysts: How can we mitigate the effects of “big money” on American politics?

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Zócalo Public SquareDo We Really Need Campaign Finance Reform? – Zócalo Public Square

Do We Really Need Campaign Finance Reform?