2/18/16
Link to article: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-11-04/super-pacs-spoil-justice-kennedy-s-fantasy
Article Title:
Summary: Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who helped create the modern campaign finance system, may be rethinking how he helped to invent the laws. He says “What happens with money in politics is not good.” To organize campaigns for the presidency and for Congress, it takes a lot of money considering the millions of voters in the country. For the 2016 election alone, total receipts have surpassed $300 million. "Politics generally doesn't lack hypocrisy, but the campaign-finance system all but mandates it.” In October of last year, Bloomberg Politics released an interview with Matt Murphy. Murphy was a longtime advisor for presidential candidate Jeb Bush before running a super PAC that is pro-Bush, and has raised over $103 million. Murphy said a document was released somehow and wound up in the hands of a reporter. It showed troubling signs for the organizational structure of Bush’s campaign in Iowa, during the caucuses. This document could have been an unintentional leak, But across the political landscape, the prohibition on coordination between campaigns and independent groups doesn't prohibit so much as inconvenience. For example, Carly Fiorina’s campaign doesn’t even arrange her campaign events, a super PAC does it for her. John Katich filmed ads for a super PAC supporting him, before his official candidacy. Justice Kennedy points out that disclosure is also a big problem in campaign finance. If contributions made by individuals were disclosed, the system would be much cleaner than it is now. We can only wait and see what will happen to the finance system in the future.
Class Connections: This article is very relatable to our class for a couple of reasons. One, it talks about the campaign finance system in which candidates raise money for their presidential or congressional campaigns. We discussed several forms of how campaign financing is a problem, including soft money and independent expenditures; but we also discussed the ways in which the system has been reformed through the years, including the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Law and the laws and regulations passed by the FEC or the Federal Election Commission. The second connection can be made with the discussion about Super PACs. These PACs are ones that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money from corporations, labor unions, individuals, etc. so long as it isn’t coordinated with a campaign. The court case that allowed for the creation of these PACs was Citizens United vs. FEC, which SCJ Anthony Kennedy was associated with when it reached the Supreme Court.
Personal View: I personally believe that their are a lot of problems with the way in which campaigns are financed in this country. I think that there should be regulations on the amount of money that organizations and PACs can raise for a candidate. The legislation in place has too many loopholes to work efficiently, and candidates are able to raise millions of dollars to fund their campaign because of this. This is one reason why I love Bernie Sanders so much. Sanders doesn’t use PACs and super PACs. He asks for individual donations to be able to fund his campaign, and many people look up to him for this reason. It is time that we stop allowing corporations and big organizations to sway the way in which our election system is carried out, it’s time to stop the millions of dollars flowing into campaigns. The system has to be cleaned in order for a functional campaign system, and ultimately, a better outcome for the election.
Article Title:
Some Supreme Doubts on Super-PACs
Class Connections: This article is very relatable to our class for a couple of reasons. One, it talks about the campaign finance system in which candidates raise money for their presidential or congressional campaigns. We discussed several forms of how campaign financing is a problem, including soft money and independent expenditures; but we also discussed the ways in which the system has been reformed through the years, including the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Law and the laws and regulations passed by the FEC or the Federal Election Commission. The second connection can be made with the discussion about Super PACs. These PACs are ones that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money from corporations, labor unions, individuals, etc. so long as it isn’t coordinated with a campaign. The court case that allowed for the creation of these PACs was Citizens United vs. FEC, which SCJ Anthony Kennedy was associated with when it reached the Supreme Court.
Personal View: I personally believe that their are a lot of problems with the way in which campaigns are financed in this country. I think that there should be regulations on the amount of money that organizations and PACs can raise for a candidate. The legislation in place has too many loopholes to work efficiently, and candidates are able to raise millions of dollars to fund their campaign because of this. This is one reason why I love Bernie Sanders so much. Sanders doesn’t use PACs and super PACs. He asks for individual donations to be able to fund his campaign, and many people look up to him for this reason. It is time that we stop allowing corporations and big organizations to sway the way in which our election system is carried out, it’s time to stop the millions of dollars flowing into campaigns. The system has to be cleaned in order for a functional campaign system, and ultimately, a better outcome for the election.
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