Publicly Financed Campaigns

I suppose it's a sign of the times that Americans increasingly favor voluntary contribution to publicly financed campaigns. After all, there have been too many times in the last six years when the line between a legal campaign contribution and a bribe has been razor thin. And there have been people like Rep. Cunningham who didn't bother to observe the legal niceties.

Here's a survey that was done by Lake Research Partners and Bellwether Research:

• Three out of four voters support a voluntary system of publicly funded campaigns. (2) Seventy-four percent of voters support a proposal for voluntary public funding of federal elections (57% strongly) with only 16% opposed.

• Support for public financing of Congressional elections cross all party lines. Eighty percent of Democrats, 78% of Independents, and 65% of Republicans support this reform.

(snip)

• The low perception voters have of congressional ethics is driving their support for this reform. Voters’ unfavorable views of Congress (36% favorable, 52% unfavorable) and lobbyists (14% favorable, 66% unfavorable) spell trouble for the Washington status quo. Voters are angry about business as usual and are demanding significant change.

I don't know what the answer is to campaign finance. It seems Congress passes campaign finance reform and immediately some politicians start looking for loopholes. And those with money are looking at the same loopholes trying to figure out how to get their money to the 'right' politicians. But we have other problems. Isn't it unfair that Rupert Murdoch can spend hundreds of millions of dollars funding Republicans through his newspapers and cable network? I don't mind people saying what they believe but when one side has far more money than the other side, we have a problem.

All most Americans want is a system that's fair and elections that are clean. Democrats aren't perfect but too many Republicans are working very hard these days to rig the system their way. Public financing may be something to think about.