Campaign Finance Reform
RETURNING GOVERNMENT TO THE PEOPLE
“It’s no secret that it costs more and more money to run for elective office. Throughout my career I have consistently pushed for campaign finance laws that limit the power of wealthy, special interests and instead bring more Americans into the political process – giving people everywhere a chance to have their voices be heard.
I’m proud of the bipartisan legislation Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and I pushed through Congress in 2002 that banned one of the biggest loopholes at the time – the ability of corporations, unions and wealthy individuals to give unlimited contributions to people on both sides of the aisle. Since McCain-Feingold became law, soliciting, accepting and making unlimited soft money contributions is a federal crime - presidents can no longer charge big money contributors thousands of dollars to sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom and members of Congress can no longer solicit $500,000, $1 million, or more from special interests and then turn around and vote on a bill directly affecting those interests.
But while McCain-Feingold was a success and a milestone in the fight to overhaul the campaign funding system, there is much work that remains. Particularly in light of the Supreme Court’s disastrous Citizens United decision, we need to move toward public funding of all federal elections, fix the presidential public financing system, and require more disclosure and easier access to campaign finance reports.
I will continue to work on a bipartisan basis to pass more reforms so that we may some day have a campaign finance system that restores our citizenry's faith in the electoral process and in their elected officials."
- Senator Russ Feingold
Enacting Historic Campaign Finance Reform – Russ, along with Senator John McCain (R-AZ), co-authored the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill signed by President Bush on March 27, 2002. The bill contains the following provisions:
• National parties: Bans national parties from raising and spending soft money.
• Prohibition on soft money solicitation: Prohibits federal officeholders and candidates from raising soft money for political parties at federal, state, and local levels, and from soliciting or raising soft money in connection with federal or non-federal elections.
• State parties: Prohibits state parties and local party committees from using soft money to pay for TV ads that mention federal candidates and get-out-the-vote (GOTV) activities that mention federal candidates. Permits state parties and local party committees to use contributions, up to $10,000 per donor per year, for generic GOTV activities and for GOTV activities for state and local candidates. Each state party or local committee must raise its own contributions and a portion of each expenditure must include hard money.
• Increases individual contribution limits: Raises limits on individual contributions to House, Senate and presidential campaigns and indexes those limits for inflation (currently at $2,400 per individual per election).
Fixing the Presidential Public Financing System – While the last election was further proof that McCain-Feingold has helped put power and influence in the hands of the many rather than the few – as indicated by the record amount of small dollar contributions raised by all presidential candidates – it is clear that our presidential public financing system is in desperate need of repair. Russ is working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to fix the current system, and while he was disappointed that then-presidential candidate Barack Obama opted out of public financing for the 2008 general election, he remains hopeful that the president and Congress will address this issue before the next presidential election in 2012. (President Obama was a cosponsor of Senator Feingold’s bipartisan legislation, called the Presidential Funding Act, when he was in the Senate.)
Among other provisions, the Presidential Funding Act greatly increases matching funds so that presidential candidates can run campaigns without an over reliance on private contributors, thus helping to protect the integrity of the electoral process. It eliminates the unrealistically low spending limits of the current system, but requires participating candidates to rely primarily on small donors and matching funds to fund their campaigns.
Shining a Light on Special Interest Campaign Spending – Russ is a leading cosponsor of the DISCLOSE Act, introduced in the wake of the Citizens United decision. Citizens United opened the door to unlimited campaign spending by corporations, unions, and special interest groups. The DISCLOSE Act would simply require that corporate spending be disclosed in a timely and comprehensive fashion so that the public can know who is funding the ads they see on TV. The bill also requires corporations and other special interest spenders to “stand by their ads” just like candidates. Finally, under the DISCLOSE Act, government contractors and recipients of TARP funds would be prohibited from spending on elections and the law preventing foreign money from influencing our elections would be tightened.
The Citizens United decision was a tragic mistake. While the decision cannot be reversed by legislation, Russ is committed to doing everything possible to reduce its negative effect on our political system. Elections should be decided by people, not special interest money.
Shining a Light on Senate Campaigns – While there have been endless advances in technology over the last decade, the Senate hasn’t yet made it to the 21st century when it comes to filing campaign reports. Senator Feingold and Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS) are authors of the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act. This legislation would require Senate campaigns to file their financial disclosure reports electronically – making them easily available and easily searchable by both the public and press, 24 hours after each filing deadline. Currently, these reports are filed by paper and often aren’t available to the public for weeks following each quarter's filing deadline. The Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act brings Senate campaigns in line with what is already done for campaigns for both the House of Representatives and President.
Recognition of Campaign Finance Reform Record – Senator Feingold received the John F. Kennedy "Profile in Courage" award for his decision to forgo soft money in his 1998 reelection campaign and for his and Senator John McCain's tireless efforts to curb the fundraising excesses of their respective parties and pass legislation that ends the worst soft money abuses.
Senator Feingold has also been honored by the Committee for Economic Development, a nonpartisan business group, with the first-ever Excellence in Public Policy Award for his efforts to reform the nation's campaign finance laws.
