Home  › Campaign Finance Reform

Jonathan Krasno, Binghamton University

For reformers, the chief motivating concern behind their actions has usually been government ethics. Even the most optimistic observer would concede that the American system, with politicians' reliance on private money to fund their campaigns, creates the potential for influence peddling. This emphasis on corruption has doubtlessly been amplified by the Supreme Court's view that combating actual or apparent corruption may justify financial regulation, but it also reflects popular culture and reformers' own tastes. Campaign finance reform has always been about cleaning up the political system.

Critics object that fears of corruption are overblown, but they mainly focus on the "unintended consequences" of reform. Passage of the 1974 Amendments to the Federal Election Campaign Act came just as political scientists were writing about the decline of electoral competition, voter turnout, and political parties. Whether campaign finance reform exacerbated these unfortunate trends is hotly debated by experts. Supporters argue that reform redeems American politics; opponents argue that it chokes the life from it.

Politically, the most important unintended consequence of reform is partisan advantage. Politicians of both parties are hypersensitive to how any change in campaign financing might affect them or their opponents. Typically, these concerns have split down party lines with healthy majorities of Republicans and Democrats claiming that the other side is using reform to grab power. Those suspicions have made regulation of campaign financing one of the toughest policy issues facing legislatures, and made moderate Republicans like Senator McCain who are willing to buck their party's leadership the key figures in any effort to change the system.

Partisan repercussions were among the concerns expressed about the McCain-Feingold bill that went into effect in time for the 2004 elections. Critics warned that, without soft money, the Democratic party would be unable to compete financially with the GOP, and that both parties risked being eclipsed by interest groups. So far, however, both parties have managed to increase their number of small donations substantially and the Democrats have kept pace. These developments speak to the one of the underlying truths about campaign financing: the participants' struggle to adapt to any new regulation. That shortens the useful life of any set of reforms and probably reduces the possibility that either party will be permanently disadvantaged by them.

Johnathan Krasno is associate professor of political science at Binghamton University. He can be reached at jkrasno@binghamton.edu and 607-777-2462.

Recent Publications on Campaign Finance Reform

Corrado, Anthony, Thomas Mann, Daniel Ortiz and Trevor Potter. 2004. The New Campaign Finance Sourcebook. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.

Corrado, Anthony, Thomas Mann and Trevor Potter, eds. 2003. Inside the Campaign Finance Debate: Arguments from the Court Battle over BCRA. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.

Francia, P.L., and Herrnson, P.S. 2003. "The Impact of Public Finance Laws on Fundraising in State Legislative Elections." American Politics Research 31:5 (September): 520-539.

Mann, Thomas E. 2003. "Linking Knowledge and Action: Political Science and Campaign Finance Reform," Perspectives on Politics 1:1 (March): 69-83.

Gross, D.A., R.K. Goidel, and T.G. Shields. 2002. "State Campaign Finance Regulations and Electoral Competition." American Politics Research 30:2 (March):143-165.

Krasno, Jonathan and Kenneth Goldstein. 2002. "The Facts about Television Advertising and the McCain-Feingold Bill." PS: Political Science & Politics 35:2 (June):207-212.

Partin, Randall. 2002. "Assessing the Impact of Campaign Spending on Governor's Races," Political Research Quarterly (March).

Pippen, J., S. Bowler, and T. Donovan. 2002. "Election Reform and Direct Democracy: Campaign Finance Regulations in the American States." American Politics Research 30:6 (November): 559-582.

Smith, Bradley A. 2001. Unfree Speech: The Folly of Campaign Finance Reform. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Krasno, Jonathan and David Seltz. 1998. Buying Time: Television Advertising in the 1998 Congressional Elections New York: Brennan Center for Justice, NYU School of Law.