Despite Obama decision, campaign finance reform isn't dead

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
by Amy Weiss

Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) declared Thursday that he would not be using public funds for his general election campaign. In a video posted on his Web site and e-mailed to supporters, he called the decision "difficult" and said he is in favor of a strong public campaign finance system but "the public financing of presidential elections, as it exists today, is broken."

The favorite quote since Obama's announcement, which has been used to imply he has gone back on a promise, is from a response to a Midwest Democracy Network questionnaire in which he said "If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election."

Obama's aggressive pursuit of an honest, publicly financed campaign was undoubtedly stalled when McCain began engaging in questionable and possibly illegal campaign practices. He uses a loophole in a law he supported to fly inexpensively on his wife's company's private jet and allegedly withdrew illegally from the public financing system, an action the Democratic National Committee wants investigated by the Federal Election Commission and has filed a lawsuit to compel the investigation.

In an interview with BuzzFlash, Laura MacCleery, Deputy Director of the Democracy program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, called Obama's decision "unsurprising" given the amounts of money he has proven he can raise. She added "we don't expect candidates to participate irrationally" in the voluntary public financing system.

In January 2007, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Reps. Marty Meehan (D-MA), Christopher Shays (R-CT), and David Price (D-NC) introduced the Presidential Funding Act of 2007, which aims to fix the problems of current public funding. It would increase matching funds and spending limits and provide safeguards for participating candidates running against non-participating candidates.

MacCleery said the bill has been relatively inactive because it is designed to fix public financing after the 2008 election, changing the standards for the 2012 presidential election.

She said both presidential candidates have "strong histories of reform." She added, "We would like both candidates to commit to fixing the system, to make it clear this will be a priority when one of them takes office."

Ben Smith of Politico.com posted a quote from a "Democratic operative" about the necessary pragmatism of the Obama campaign: "They have the most exciting candidate since JFK and like that operation, they have their share of talented, ambitious and at times ruthless people. Barack gets to stay above the fray, while his campaign does whatever it takes to win."

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT

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