Fundraising Reform in a Time of Crisis

It makes sense to finally add some campaign finace reform to political fundraising and that may be happening in Illinois. In an article today some very interesting things were said about possible funding limits. No where has camp0aign reform come so far as in Arizona however there Clean Elections pricess is under judicial attack. The idea behind campaign finace reform is twofold. One politicians spend the lion’s share of the time raising money and secondly the money that is given is often to influenece the judgement of the elected official.

For example a $10,000 check from a political action committee (PAC) may mean that they wish to have the person elected to speak for them. Great it is a representative government. What happens is millions of dollars are spent to elect people and if we follow the money it almost always translates to the boting record of the elected official. The problem with getting elected is a politician often has to focus on getting re-elected not governing or legislating but raising money for a re-election campaign.

So I ask you in today’s economy do you want someone who is concentrating on getting re-elected or doing the job that they were elected to do?