Stop One Leak, Another Springs

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March 23, 2005

Stop One Leak, Another Springs

Dear Rep. McMillan, why is there only one GOP donor ever mentioned when you're touting your ethics reform package? I want to support campaign finance reforms, in general, but lately there are good questions being raised concerning the actual effectiveness of some measures and/or the presence of some ugly side effects (the potential FEC oversight of bloggers comes to mind).

Dear Rep. Hargett, if individual contributions to PACs are limited to $10K/year, how exactly does this increase the "importance" of PACs' contributions, since the PACs would ostensibly have smaller accounts as a result? I agree that the "amendments to both bills that would have equally limited the amount of money PACs or candidates could contribute to any political parties, political campaigns or political caucuses" may not have been given due consideration, but isn't there merit in also focusing on "leveling the playing field" where individuals are concerned? Like you, I don't want 60% of political contributions coming from PACs, but neither do we need 80% of contributions coming from 5% of individuals.

Perhaps purely public election financing is the only way out of the whole mess, but since that's not a likely reality, let's at least bring proper attention to equally putting the squeeze on all sources of big money. I'm trying to see through to the place where we can actually close all the loopholes, and not simply create more when we close some. Unfortunately, my inner cynic says that the money will find a way through, no matter what we do.

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