President Trump has been trying to blame the Democrats for the effort by federal prosecutors to depict payoffs to two women as campaign finance violations.
Trump is correct to perceive campaign finance law at the heart of the matter.
In his statement, Nixon declared that the law "Limits contributions by candidates and their families to their own campaigns." He added that, "By giving the American public full access to the facts of political financing, this legislation will guard against campaign abuses and will work to build public confidence in the integrity of the electoral process."
The whole episode is emblematic of the big long-term story of campaign finance law.
Our campaign finance laws were enacted in 1972 and 2002 to guard against rich individuals or companies writing large checks with which campaigns might buy commercials on the three major broadcast television networks.
It's probably too much to hope that Trump would channel his annoyance at the New York charges into an effort to repeal the current campaign finance regime and replace it with a system that would make more clear that it's not a federal felony for a candidate to spend his own money to preserve his own reputation or marriage, with or without disclosing the expenditure.
Whatever steps Trump does take on the campaign finance law front, it's hard to imagine he can do any worse than his Republican predecessors, Nixon, McCain, and George W. Bush.
http://reason.com/archives/2018/12/12/nixon-mccain-bush-trump-campaign-finance
Trump is correct to perceive campaign finance law at the heart of the matter.
In his statement, Nixon declared that the law "Limits contributions by candidates and their families to their own campaigns." He added that, "By giving the American public full access to the facts of political financing, this legislation will guard against campaign abuses and will work to build public confidence in the integrity of the electoral process."
The whole episode is emblematic of the big long-term story of campaign finance law.
Our campaign finance laws were enacted in 1972 and 2002 to guard against rich individuals or companies writing large checks with which campaigns might buy commercials on the three major broadcast television networks.
It's probably too much to hope that Trump would channel his annoyance at the New York charges into an effort to repeal the current campaign finance regime and replace it with a system that would make more clear that it's not a federal felony for a candidate to spend his own money to preserve his own reputation or marriage, with or without disclosing the expenditure.
Whatever steps Trump does take on the campaign finance law front, it's hard to imagine he can do any worse than his Republican predecessors, Nixon, McCain, and George W. Bush.
http://reason.com/archives/2018/12/12/nixon-mccain-bush-trump-campaign-finance
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