The Good News and Bad News on Campaign Finance Reform

The good news for affirmative debaters is that virtually no one is happy with current federal campaign finance regulations. So there would seem to be many opportunities for reforming the system.

The bad news for affirmative debaters is that no campaign finance reforms are likely to be effective. Large amounts of money flow to candidates, PACs, and issue campaigns identical to candidate positions.

The layers of federal campaign finance regulations added over the decades have made campaign finance more complicated, but not restricted the flow of money from special interests in support of particular candidates.

Jeffrey Miron in his “Campaign Finance Regulation” article, discusses the history of campaign finance regulations and the reasons why they have caused campaign finance innovations, but not restricted money flowing into federal campaigns.

Any effort to tighten restrictions on issue campaigns bumps up against Constitutional protections on freedom of speech.