A Pelosi-Sarbanes Dud

Federal law prevents coordination between candidate committees and Super PACs. Luckily for Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and John Sarbanes (D-MD), co-sponsors of a new campaign finance bill (H.R. 20), the same does not hold true for public-relation blitzes. The legislators and their allies are directing an organized messaging campaign to convince the public of the need for this law.

H.R. 20 dovetails with the perpetual umbrage directed at the Supreme Court for its Citizens United v. FEC decision. The case’s anniversary is now habitually synchronized with legislative “solutions” to the “problem” of greater and more varied voices in the political marketplace. Whether under the guise of “transparency,” “shareholder protection,” or “citizen empowerment,” those that know best assure us they are at the ready with a government fix to our supposedly helplessly corrupt system of funding campaigns and political advocacy.

The bill would create an essentially publicly funded campaign system. Key components include a tax credit and public money multipliers for small donations. A third component, described in an op-ed published by the co-sponsors, is particularly misleading:

Provide candidates with an opportunity to earn additional resources in the homestretch of a campaign so that the voices of the people are not completely drowned out by super political action committees and other dark-money interests. In the wake of Citizens United, this kind of support is critical to ensuring that citizen-backed candidates have staying power.

More