Utah’s Campaign Finance System Isn’t Broken
I’ve griped about it and I’ve read other people griping about it too but I’ve recently come to the conclusion that arguments against Utah’s current campaign finance system are often more flawed than the system itself. Calls for banning lobbyist gifts or limiting campaign contributions will only result in money being pushed to candidates through different channels. What we need is a system that maximizes freedom of speech (and no matter what anyone says money in politics equals speech) and that allows citizens to have a full and complete knowledge of who is bankrolling the candidates.
Some may complain that my favored policy approach won’t change the way people vote and they may be right but that doesn’t mean that we need to implement many of the restrictions some have called for. They just won’t make any real difference in preventing money from going to candidates and there is a good chance that Utahns will know even less about who politicians are beholden to under a more restrictive system.
In the end it doesn’t matter. Until Utahns realize how damaging it is to keep voting for “the good guys” foisted on them by the Republican Party crazies caucus participants no change in the campaign finance system is going to make any real difference.
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I definitely agree with you on campaign finance reform. What matters the most is free speech and transparency. Citizens should have the full and complete knowledge of who is bankrolling the candidates.
Comment by Daniel — January 22, 2008 @ 1:00 pm