Your weekend must-reads
Monday, May 4, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller
[Space/time continuum altered and comments opened.]
* I agree with almost every single word in this Collin Levy column. Go read the whole thing…
To be sure, Illinois, which has no limits on campaign contributions, is a sort of wild frontier for reformers who sense an opportunity to crank down on the power of cash, and to test-run all the favorite bans and regulatory hoops they’d like to impose. They’re probably hoping the public will forget Mr. Blagojevich was their champion last time around. After having voted for McCain-Feingold as a member of Congress, he pressed for a state version of the law in 2005, when he was governor, calling it “the right thing to do.” And why not? Even if the law had passed (it didn’t), it would have cost him little. Political money that might have gone to the governor’s coffers would instead have been channeled into shadier environs, just as it has on the federal level. […]
Contribution caps don’t help level the playing field or weaken corrupt pols, either. According to a Chicago Tribune analysis this month of tens of thousands of campaign contributions over the past decade, if the state donation caps had been in place in the 2006 election, Mr. Blagojevich still would have outraised Republican Judy Baar Topinka by 3-1.
For campaign finance reformers, the problem is always “too much” money. But as Illinois shows, the problem isn’t the money, it’s the politicians. Three other states — Utah, Oregon and Virginia — have no contribution limits. Yet they haven’t a shadow of the political scandals Illinois has spawned. According to research by the Center for Competitive Politics, the three states that the Justice Department ranks as having the lowest rates of public corruption — Iowa, Oregon and Nebraska — do not have stringent campaign finance restrictions.
In 2007, the New York-based Brennan Center for Justice issued a report calling Illinois’s relatively unregulated campaign system “broken and badly in need of reform.” But it also called Minnesota, which has contribution limits and public financing, “broken and badly in need of reform.” Ditto Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin. As former Federal Election Commission chairman Brad Smith points out, “broken and badly in need of reform” turns out to be the universal condition of campaign systems, which reformers never run out of new proposals to fix.
Again, I can’t stress this enough, go read the whole thing.
* I also agree with almost every single word in today’s Sun-Times editorial…
In Illinois, redistricting is done by the legislators. Though guided by rules that call for compact and contiguous districts with roughly equal population that fairly represent minority groups, politics still dominate. If legislators and a commission of equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans can’t agree on a map — which almost always happens — a bizarre tie-breaker scheme kicks in. Two names, one Democrat and one Republican, go into a hat. The winner tips the voting power in his party’s favor, giving that party final say on redistricting.
Iowa lives on another planet. There, a nonpartisan group, with help from a computer software program, creates the maps. The legislature then votes to accept or reject. Out of that process, Iowa created a map in which 64 incumbents were thrown into districts to face other sitting incumbents, said James Nowlan, a senior fellow at the Institute for Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois.
We believe the Iowa model can work in Illinois, despite considerable differences in population and geography from Iowa, and we urge the Illinois General Assembly to seriously consider it.
* This, however, is a bit much…
Rich Miller, publisher of the Capitol Fax Blog, the bible of state politics
- Ucster - Monday, May 4, 09 @ 8:05 am:
“Rich Miller, publisher of the Capitol Fax Blog, the bible of state politics”
Bible of state politics? Wow! Aren’t we special?
- soccermom - Monday, May 4, 09 @ 8:17 am:
He writes the Bible, he controls the time-space continuum — wow, Rich is like God, only better-looking.
- OneMan - Monday, May 4, 09 @ 8:20 am:
==Rich Miller, publisher of the Capitol Fax Blog, the bible of state politics==
Perhaps not the Bible, but at least the Book of Concord..
Also soccermom, have you met Rich and if so what does God look like to you
- wordslinger - Monday, May 4, 09 @ 8:23 am:
Marin seems a tad irrationally exuberant about Meeks chances. I don’t think the ‘83 Washington victory scenario applies in a statewide race.
But the Dems will certainly attempt to massage him to keep him off the ballot as an independent.
- train111 - Monday, May 4, 09 @ 8:27 am:
One Man
I find Rich’s blog interesting and fairly easy to read. I attempted to read the Book of Concord once. It’s very difficult going and pretty darn boring to boot!!
(For those that do not know, the Book of Concord is a collection of statements and writings that are the backbone of the Lutheran faith–I think I have that right)
train111
- Angry Chicagoan - Monday, May 4, 09 @ 8:28 am:
I think it’s worth pointing out that the reason the Minnesota system is “broken” is because nobody seems to be particularly interested in seriously enforcing the law. You have a weak law that, for example, Mike Entenza and his wife were able to game fairly easily in terms of dishing out money to a whole host of successful Democrats over the past few years, and when Tim Pawlenty flat out and flagrantly broke the law during his gubernatorial campaign to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, he was let off with a caution. There are countless other examples of abuse on both sides of the aisle. One example I recall is a candidate using his own private plane to campaign in but not counting any of the operating expenses under the spending limit. Again, according to the people who “enforce” the law, no big deal, but his non-airborne primary opponent was sure ticked off, especially when the results came in on election night.
- VanillaMan - Monday, May 4, 09 @ 8:58 am:
Seek ye RICH MILLER while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the Democrat forsake theis ways, and the Republican man his thoughts: and let them return unto the CAPITOLFAXBLOG, and VOTERS will have mercy upon them. VanillMan 55:6-7
- Fan of the Game - Monday, May 4, 09 @ 9:01 am:
“For campaign finance reformers, the problem is always ‘too much’ money. But as Illinois shows, the problem isn’t the money, it’s the politicians.”
Truth. We don’t need caps on contributions. We could use more transparency in reporting who donates and how much.
- Plutocrat03 - Monday, May 4, 09 @ 9:08 am:
How about a requirement that all political donations be made over the internet, thus providing instant and automatic disclosure.
Of course our culture of corruption would instantly develop a false name service to protect the privacy of the donors as well a way to make the donations after the election to pay off campaign debts.
- Nearly Normal - Monday, May 4, 09 @ 9:14 am:
VM–
Good one
Do you have headings for the other 54 chapters of your “Bible?”
- OneMan - Monday, May 4, 09 @ 10:43 am:
“A yea did Rich Miller look upon the man’s statement and realized it was BS and verily he told said man it was BS and informed the mass gathering it was most verily BS”
or
“And the Rod was vanished from the land, and the people did feast, on the wildebeest, sloths and orangutans”
- No Peotone Airport - Monday, May 4, 09 @ 11:43 am:
Instead of more limits on campaign contributions, which most seem to feel can be circumvented, require that all funds raised in for a given election must be spent in that cycle.
Eliminating carryover “War Chests” would certainly aid the disinfecting process we hear so much clamoring for.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Monday, May 4, 09 @ 11:52 am:
“The land will be completely laid waste and totally plundered. The MILLER has spoken this word.”
- 47th Ward - Monday, May 4, 09 @ 1:19 pm:
“Thou shalt bite me.”
A commandment from the Book of Miller.
- Linda - Monday, May 4, 09 @ 2:36 pm:
I’m wondering about Rich’s bible’s creation story. Rich: care to share?
- farawaybut stillclose - Monday, May 4, 09 @ 6:16 pm:
Hey Rich,
One thought on this line: “Mr. Blagojevich still would have outraised Republican Judy Baar Topinka by 3-1.”
I know that sounds like it makes the point, but what are those numbers…if that is 3 million vs 1 million makes the point a lot different than if that is 15 million to 5 million. Races, as you know, are expensive and you need a boatload to make it count…incumbent or not.
Just saying.
- Rich Miller - Monday, May 4, 09 @ 9:12 pm:
I’ll just say that anybody who thinks this is the bible is likely going to Hell.