Campaign Finance Reform Issues

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate April 2001

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One of the most controversial topics in government today is the debate over campaign finance reform. This is not a new or fresh debate. The battle over campaign finance reform has raged on for years. The original legislation was Federal Elections Campaign Act of 1971, and the Campaign Finance Reform Act of 1974. These were the original legislation for campaign finance reform. What these acts did essentially was to establish the role of government in the campaign process. According to the numbers section of the November 1st edition of Time magazine a campaign finance reform bill has been killed without debate for four years. The section then went on to state that Elizabeth Dole removed herself from the presidential race due to lack of funds. Her funds at the time of withdraw was 4.8 million dollars compared to the 1.8 million dollars Abraham Lincoln spent in 1999 dollars on his winning campaign.

This is more evidence to the fact that the more bucks gets you the vote. I believe that Frank Pellegrini said it best with his quote: "In politics, money doesn't just talk "“ it gives speeches. It speaks loud, from a lush rented banquet hall, or wide, from the face in a slick campaign ad on national television. It is a megaphone for ideas, and also a corruptor of democracy, because when money it is given in large enough quantities "“ and yes, Messrs. Forbes and Perot and Huffington, it must be given to be truly effective "“ it wins elections. It buys votes, because it is votes. It signals support, so it attracts support, and thus it is self-fulfilling. And because no candidate can win without it, nearly every candidate promises nearly anything to get more of it than his opponent. And though it has long paved...