Category: Campaign Finance Reform

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Is it time to take direct action to block the effects of Citizen’s United?

  By Campaign Finance Reform, Politics

It’s just a trickle now, but the corporate money that was unshackled by Citizen’s United is beginning to flow just where we feared it would. And now, before it turns into a torrent, we should try to stop it. The ideal way to do so is with legislation. But the filibuster enabled a minority of Republicans to block more limited campaign finance legislation last week, so that might take a while. In the meantime, perhaps it is time to embrace direct action, boycotts of corporations that support right wing candidates, especially those that depend on a huge base of consumers for their profits. Continue reading

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We deserve better: a reform agenda beyond the committee of seventy proposal

  By Campaign Finance Reform, Philadelphia, Progressive Politics

Bob Moses was an important leader in SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which played a major role in the latter half of the Civil Rights movement.  I had the great privilege of meeting him when I was in College. When he organized in deep Mississippi he said the first thing to do was to teach people that they deserve better then what they have. He understood that thinking you deserve more, gives people a reason to fight for what’s right. If I could do anything for Philadelphia, that would be it – make us believe we deserve better, and give us hope that we can attain it. Recent debates on Philadelphia  campaign finance laws are one more story of our broken politics – at several levels.  We deserve better than the bill proposed by Councilman Kenny, which proposed huge increases in the caps on campaign contributions.  We need to… Continue reading

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Against repealing contribution limits

  By Campaign Finance Reform, My 2007 Campaign

I oppose any legislation that would have the effect of eliminating campaign contribution limits in the current Mayoral race. The goal of campaign finance reform is to preserve our democracy. Democracy is undermined when money becomes so important in politics that those who contribute to campaigns play a dramatically greater role in determining who holds office—and thus what our office holders do—than our citizens. So I am concerned about both limiting the influence of those who contribute to the campaigns of others and those who contribute to their own campaigns. In order to attain both goals, I proposed last week a compromise that would lift campaign contribution limits gradually if a candidate for Mayor increased his contributions to his own campaign. Rather than being a serious compromise, the new bill goes so far in lifting contribution limits as to make them meaningless. It is a fig leaf that doesn’t cover… Continue reading

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A Possible Compromise? / Let's Be Fair to Jim Kenney

  By Campaign Finance Reform, My 2007 Campaign, Philadelphia, Progressive Politics, Ward politics

I have more reason than most people to want Jim Kenney put in a bad light, as I’m running for a position he holds, Council at Large. And I strongly disagree with the legislation he proposed, to eliminate all spending limitations in the Mayoral election when one candidate spends a large amount from his own resources. But I think we ought to be fair to Councilman Kenney in two respects. Continue reading

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Don't break it again. Fix it!

  By Campaign Finance Reform, My 2007 Campaign, Philadelphia

Campaign finance reform is only one, limited way, of fixing our broken politics. But it is one we have to save. If, however, we look at all the goals of campaign finance reform, we will see that the folks concerned about Tom Knox’s ability to spend much more out of his own pocket than other candidates can raise and spend is a serious problem. But there are ways of fixing that problem now that would improve our campaign financing system rather than taking us back to the dark ages. Campaign finance reform has a number of goals. One goal of campaign finance reform is to limit pay to play—the practice of big campaign contributors getting benefits from the city in return for their contributions. That is the prime reason that Jim Kenny’s proposal to eliminate all limits on campaign contributions in the Mayoral race is a really terrible idea. (And… Continue reading

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Politics as usual 14, reform 0

  By Campaign Finance Reform, Philadelphia

By a vote of 14-0, City Council today gutted the campaign finance laws that were enacted a few years ago. Contribution limits of $2500 for an individual and $10,000 for a PAC will now kick in when a candidate declares his or her candidacy or files nominating petitions, that is, as late as March of an election year. There will be no limitations prior to that time. And as I have pointed out, there is a massive loophole that will allow money above the limits to be spent even after they go into effect. Wilson Goode did not introduce an amendment to have the contribution limits begin when a candidate begins raising money for his or her campaign. I was not there because I teach Thursday mornings at Temple. But I understand that there was no debate at all. Continue reading

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Help save campaign finance reform

  By Campaign Finance Reform, Elections and Voting, Philadelphia

This week City Council will consider Bill No. 060629, which in its unamended form would gut the city’s limits on campaign contributions and be a major step backwards in the effort to reform politics in Philadelphia. You can help stop 60629—or even better, have it improved by amendment—by signing a petition which will be delivered to your Council members Thursday morning. Bill 60629, which is sponsored by Councilman Goode, would, in its original form, define a candidate as someone who has filed nominating petitions or declared his or her candidacy for office. The result would be that there would be no limits on how much money a candidate could raise before early March of an election year. (See below for information about an amendment Goode proposed today that may fix this problem) Goode claimed that his ordinance would prohibit candidates from using money that exceeds the finance limits ($2500 for… Continue reading

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Reforming political campaigns by reducing the cost of TV

  By Campaign Finance Reform, Elections and Voting

Hannah Miller has written a lovely post over at YPP about the importance of reducing the cost of our political campaigns by providing low cost television advertising. The logic of Hannah’s argument ultimately leads to the conclusion that Ray Murphy reaches in a comment on that post: Comcast ought to provide free time for political advertising as well as for televised debates and other election focused media events. (And, by the way, it really is about time that the city held Comcast to its contractual agreement to provide public access TV so that we have an alternative to corporate owned media in the city. You can read all about this issue at http://www.phillyaccess.org/.) Comcast has a right to operate in the city because it holds a franchise that must be approved by Council. The contract that defines that franchise could be written to require free or low cost television advertising.… Continue reading

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Public campaign finance hearings

  By Campaign Finance Reform

As I reported in one of my first blog posts in September, there is some movement toward enacting public financing of campaigns in Philadelphia. As they had promised, Council members Verna and Tasco submitted a resolution to hold informational hearings on the subject. The first one took place last Wednesday. A number of people testified, all of them in favor of public campaign financing. I have posted a page that contains my testimony, which gives three reasons why we public financing of campaigns. My conclusions sums it up: Continue reading