Campaign_Finance_Reform

Campaign Finance Reform CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM ...HA! Even a cursory examination of the news media shows a number of key events that have placed campaign finance reform ("CFR") front and center. These include: record-setting "soft money" fund raising by both political parties in the last election; the problem of self- funded candidates; fund-raising from foreign sources; independent expenditures.These issues led the pack, but the hearty perennials, such as political action committee ("PAC") funding, electronic disclosure, public funding and the like were also being debated. Perhaps CFR is a topic whose time has finally come. The campaign finance system is corrupt. Spending is out of control, and there are various loopholes infederal campaign finance law. Money buys access and influence, which effectively causes the majority of Americans to have no real capacity toinfluence public policy. State and federal legislation is needed to fightcorruption and unjust influence, to ensure the public's right to know where acandidate's money comes from, to enable all candidates to competeequitably in elections, and to allow maximum citizen participation in thepolitical process. Rock the Vote believes that the McCain-FeingoldCampaign Finance Reform Bill, in its current state, should be the first piece oflegislation signed into law in 2001. Bolder approaches could include: reducingthe duration money, campaign, finance, people, 2001, reform, political, campaigns, soft, candidates, contributions, make, election, politicians, government, elections, million, donations, dollars, spending, public, issue, candidate, must, funds, limits, fecgov, presidential, law, expenditures, bill, under, system, support, parties, corporations, corporate, year, time, made, legislation, laws, federal, democracy, congress, companies, population, one, mccain-feingold, large, interest