Shays Introduces Bill to Reform Campaign Finance Laws
SHAYS
Norwalk Hour
Anthony Rotunno
Boston University Washington News Service
1/30/07
WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 – Confident that 2008 will mark the first $1 billion presidential race, Reps. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., Martin Meehan, D-Mass., and David Price, D-N.C., introduced legislation Tuesday to reform the presidential public financing system established in 1974 in the aftermath of Watergate.
But even if promptly adopted, the proposed law would not affect next year’s election.
The spending limits the Federal Election Commission has set for candidates who accept public financing do not work in today’s multi-million dollar campaigns, Shays said at a press conference announcing the Presidential Funding Act of 2007.
Both President Bush and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., opted out of receiving federal matching funds for their presidential primary campaigns in 2004 but accepted public funds in the general election campaigns. Shays said people do not have faith in the current system because it is no longer being used.
“Nobody who wants to be viable as a presidential candidate can work in the existing system,” Shays said. “They would be wise not to.”
The bill would increase the spending limit for presidential candidates from $45 million to $150 million in primary election campaigns and from $75 million to $100 million in general election campaigns.
It also would establish “safeguards” to prevent candidates who choose to participate in the public financing system from being outspent by their opponents who do not participate.
“As frontrunner candidates opt out, the current system acts as an incentive to their competitors to do the same or be crushed under superior fundraising without spending limits,” Meehan said.
Shays said he hoped the new system would create an incentive for candidates not to opt out because if they do and spend more than the set limit on their campaigns, their opponents who do participate will receive additional federal funds.
In addition to increasing spending limits and establishing safeguards, the bill also would prohibit candidates from refusing federal money for their primary campaigns but then accepting it for their general election campaigns.
It will not affect candidates running in the upcoming election because the bill would not put the new system in place until 2009. Price said that although it cannot change the spending rules by 2008, there is still time for Congress to get on board with the legislation for the 2012 presidential race.
“The system is on its sick bed – it’s not dead yet” he said. “It needs is a shot in the arm, not a funeral.”
Price also said that by increasing the federally funded limits on campaign spending and adopting appropriate safeguards, the bill would help long-shot presidential candidates run viable campaigns and open the field of candidates to more than just “those with enough money in the bank to run.”
Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., introduced an identical bill an Tuesday
Shays and Meehan introduced a similar bill in the House last year, but it never moved out of committee. Shays said that a billion-dollar presidential race in 2008 should be impetus enough for Congress to pass the legislation.
“It’s up to those who are not running [for the presidency] to fix the system for those who are,” he said.
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