Dear Senator,
I recently heard a riveting interview on KBOO-FM, the local community radio station. The host spoke with Bruce Ackerman, a professor of law and political science at Yale University, about his new book, “Voting With Dollars.” In this book he puts forward a radical, yet common-sense proposal to overhaul America’s election system.
As he sees it, the problem isn’t too much money; the problem is instead too much influence. His proposal has two parts: in the first part he recommends abolishing the current flawed system of public campaign financing, with it’s half measures and built-in biases. Most people outside of politics have no idea how it even works. Replace it, instead, with a system where every citizen is “given” $50 in campaign money to donate to the candidates of his or her choice. This simplifies the system and makes the individual decisions of millions of citizens the backbone of American politics, rather than the actions of large donors.
It is the second half of his proposal that is truly brilliant, however. Rather than setting limits on how much money a person can give to a candidate, he simply recommends that all campaign contributions be funneled through blind trusts. This single bold stroke separates most, if not all, of the influence of donor contributions upon candidates. If Daddy Warbucks wants to give a million dollars to Senator Feelgood, he still can, but Senator Feelgood will not be able to verify that the rising balance of his campaign account came from a single donor. Finally, candidates will be completely free of the taint of “monetary speech.” I urge you to read Professor Ackerman’s book, and support legislation to implement this much needed campaign finance reform.
Kurt