Campaign Finance Reform And The Ironic Role Of Hillary Clinton In Making It Happen

Political pollution is suffocating democracy.

If it were atmospheric pollution there would have been a "clean air act" decades ago.

VOORHEES: Clinton might be the best hope for real reform. "At best, it is ironic that she would take on the mantle of campaign-finance-reform crusader; at worst, it is hypocritical. ... Many progressives are understandably uncomfortable with Clinton’s close ties to Wall Street and other moneyed interests that are best positioned to exploit those same election-law holes she wants to fix, but if reform-minded advocates want those laws changed, they will be hard pressed to find someone with more resources to effect the change they want. Ironic, yes. But true." Slate.

Clinton calls for a constitutional amendment to reform campaign finance. "In Iowa this week, in the first public appearances of her second bid for president, Hillary Rodham Clinton said that one of her top priorities was to 'fix our dysfunctional political system and get unaccountable money out of it once and for all, even if it takes a constitutional amendment.' ... Democrats expect the super PACs backing Mrs. Clinton to raise as much as $300 million, on top of the $1 billion or more she is likely to raise for her campaign and the Democratic National Committee. ... Mrs. Clinton’s decision to address the issue so early in her campaign may reflect, in part, the pressure she feels from a new cohort of activists who are urging her to address not just inequality of wealth, but also the inequality of political power it is intertwined with."Nicholas Confessore in The New York Times.

COHN: Big money is transforming the presidential primary. "The primary season is just underway, but the early super PAC tallies appear to be an order of magnitude beyond what we saw the last time... Money doesn’t buy presidential nominations. At least it hasn’t yet. ... Typically, broad support from party elites is a much better predictor of which candidate will win the nomination. ... There’s no question that the new combination of unlimited super PAC contributions and online fund-raising has eroded the control of party elites over the last two decades. It’s especially the case in today’s factionalized G.O.P., where even the party elite is fractured along regional, religious and ideological lines." The New York Times.