Money Talks

Campaign finance reform.

We've heard of it in legends and myths since the '70s, but it really came to a head with President Clinton's first term and, more immediately, the allegations of campaign finance wrongdoing on the part of the Democratic Party's fundraising wing, the Democratic National Committee.

By now, if you don't know the story, you've probably been on NyQuil for the past four months. Allegations arose just before election day that President Clinton's campaign had violated campaign finance laws in accepting contributions from foreign investor Cheong Am America (a distinct no-no in national campaign contributions); Dick Morris alleges that Clinton had, in fact, worked with the DNC to coordinate advertisements for re-election a year before Election Day, another faux pas.

In the DNC's defense, the contributions from foreign investors came at the height of the campaign season, a time when the checks and balances that protect against such mistakes were a little weary.

But then, there's the issue of the alleged misuse of Lincoln bedroom. The prominent allegation is that the president "allowed" certain celebrities and other wealthy individuals to stay in the Lincoln Bedroom in return for "gifts" (read: campaign contributions). The president, of course, denies the allegation. If true, it represents a violation of the Hatch Act, the law that prohibits campaign fundraising on federal property.

Now, there's the allegation in the Washington Post that Vice President Al Gore personally solicited funds during the campaign season. While not a violation per se, it represents a potential ethical difficulty that will haunt Gore in his future campaigns, and put yet another stain on the honor of the Clinton Administration.

The Republicans, smelling blood in the water, jumped headfirst into the issue, though it is interesting that when questioned on whether there is a need for a special prosecutor in the current campaign-finance mess, even Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D- N.Y., responded cynically, "That seems to be the prevailing opinion, yes." (CNN)

So intense has the pressure become that the president actually compared himself to Richard Jewell, the man wrongly implicated in the Olympic Park bombing. Please.

No one actually wants campaign finance reform. Clinton's recent speech to a fundraising dinner on the need for campaign finance reform simply highlights the tongue-in-cheek approach to this issue taken by most politicians. Why sever the hand that feeds you? It takes, after all, a significant amount of money to reach high political office, especially the presidency.

Nor is this a strictly partisan issue. It is na‹ve in the extreme to assume that some level of greasing does not occur at most levels of politics. Even non-profit, allegedly non-partisan groups such as the Sierra Club, the Christian Coalition, and the American Association of Retired Persons violate the spirit (not the letter) of campaign-finance laws by partisan literature, going into tax-exempt business, and direct-mail solicitation. The funds garnered from these activities go to endorse the politicians of choice. (U.S. News and World Reports, January 13)

For any of you Republicans out there crying foul at the DNC's latest troubles - which include irregular contributions from convicted drug dealers (U.S. News and World Reports, January 20) - keep in mind that the law that created the Federal Election Commission was crafted in response to Republican wrongdoing in the Nixon administration. And, on a more immediate note, House Speaker Newt Gingrich did have that little ethics problem when he merged his non-profit foundation with politics to support his college course.

Consider, too, the actions taken by Congress with respect to the FEC. Once, Congress voted to impose sanctions on itself with regard to campaign financing and misappropriations of funds. When the FEC followed suit and made those ideas part of its operating regulations, however, Congress slashed the FEC's budget by $3 million. Court rulings and congressional revisions have consistently made the FEC more and more an edgeless barricade to political maneuvering.

If politicians at the state and especially the national level want to deal with the splinters of apathy and cynicism in the American public eye, they should attend to the campaign-finance beam in their own.

By Editoral Staff (Editor's Letter)
Arizona Daily Wildcat
March 4, 1997