Clean Campaigns for U.S. Congressional Leaders

The Fair Elections Now Proposal May Give More Power to the People

Apr 1, 2009 Carmen Sofia Grant

The Fair Elections proposal, S. 1285 in the 110th Congress, would bring big change to Washington. The amendment would change the way candidates fund their campaigns.

The goal of the amendment, which makes changes to the Fair Elections Campaign Act of 1974, is to make campaigns fairer, and increase the efficacy of congressional leaders' time. Congress members will be able to expend more energy listening to their constituents rather than having to meet high power contributors who threaten to pull donations if their demands are not met.

How Candidates Would Qualify for Clean Campaign Money

Candidates would be responsible for raising their own money, by getting a maximum of $100 from members in the communities they represent, to qualify for Fair Elections funding. House Representatives would need to get 1,500 contributions from people in their state and raise a total of $50,000 while Senate candidates would need to raise a total of 10% of the primary Fair Elections funding which would be 2,000 contributions plus 500 times the number of congressional districts in their state. For example, “a candidate running for U.S. Senate in Ohio, with 20 districts, would require 12,000 qualifying contributions before receiving Fair Elections funding,” according to CommonCause.org, a non-profit, nonpartisan advocacy group. Fair Elections would also offset media costs by giving candidates a 20% discount in broadcast rates.

Current Campaign Funding Laws

Currently congressional candidates and incumbents can accept donations from private corporations and individuals. They can hire campaign managers who work closely with lobbyists and other special interest groups to raise money for a hard-hitting campaign. The harder the lobbyists work, the more money and support they can pull in, thus increasing the success of the candidate. In addition the candidate must appear at political rallies, give speeches, and fulfill other time-consuming campaign responsibilities.

Lobby Power in Campaigns

More people are growing wary of special interest groups, believing they have too much power and act as politician puppeteers. Politicians, influenced by special interests, can ignore the requests of their constituents even if the lobby only represents a small part of the constituent base. The person who is willing and able to donate a lot of money is believed to have more power than the person who does not donate because of inability, lack of information, or lack of interest.

Negative View of Fair Elections

Skeptics of the bill wonder whether the proposition is fair. Taxpayers already pay the congressional members’ salaries as well fund new acts. Do they really want to pay for the campaigns too? If a lobby group or big business wants to support a candidate, why shouldn’t they be able to? They have the money and the desire. Are they really buying out a congress member or congressional candidate, or is it that congress members are simply listening to the only people who are talking to them? Why should a person who has no interest in politics be equally represented like one who is heavily involved?

The reason many officials get voted into office is because of the hard work of the lobbyists. An otherwise good politician may not have the funds to get voted in without the support of a lobby who believes in that person. What if the better candidate is not as charismatic as the other, and ends up losing to a bad politician because he didn't have a good lobby who could better interpret his or her goals?

Examples of What the Bill Could Do:

Supporters believe that the campaign bill would help pass good legislation that is Increase in the federal minimum wage by denying big business interests from influencing congressional leaders to keep the wage down.

Prescription medicines could become more affordable by stopping the influence pharmaceutical companies have on congressional leaders. Pharmaceutical manufacturers gave more than $92 million to federal campaigns from 1989 to 2006 with 72% of contributions going to Republicans, according to Public Campaign Action Fund.

Clean Elections Success at the State Level

Many states, including Arizona and Maine, already have Clean Elections. Candidates receive a grant for their campaign with strict spending limits and do not accept private fundraising money. By having a pool of money for campaigns, a spending limit is created thus special interests' power is checked. The congressional leaders will have nothing but their hard work and personal drive to adequately represent their constituents.

To support or oppose the amendment to S. 1285, learn how to write a letter to your congress member.

The copyright of the article Clean Campaigns for U.S. Congressional Leaders in American Affairs is owned by Carmen Sofia Grant. Permission to republish Clean Campaigns for U.S. Congressional Leaders in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Fair Elections Take the Pocketbook Pressure Off.

Donations to be Limited to $100 Per Person.

Pocket Change Enough to Elect a Candidate.