A Brookings Institution study of state parties, authored by Ray La Raja and Jonathan Rauch, is the latest of the sober commentaries on contemporary campaign finance.
La Raja and Rauch conclude that state parties have lost significant ground to outside groups and are impeded in large part by Federal regulation, mostly by McCain-Feingold, in performing critical functions.
They would like to see state parties:
- Increase or eliminate contribution limits
- Deregulation to enhance their ability to coordinate with candidates
- Conduct ticket-wide activities
- Public financing measures in the form of tax deductible contributions
The strengthening of state parties, they are convinced, can promote more moderate politics; it can offset to some extent the polarizing forces unleashed by “outside groups.”
The report is a contribution to the growing consensus that campaign finance laws today are unworkable and in desperate need of reform.
The question is: are state parties, for the reasons given, an appropriately special focus of reform?
As the authors note, there are other reasons for the struggles of state parties and the rise of the outside groups. Laws and rules may add to the problem but are not its exclusive cause.
Much of what La Raja and Rauch say about state parties would apply to the parties as a whole, at the national as well as the state and local level, and there are other actors within the regulated system also clamoring with justification for relief from outdated, burdensome, and pointless regulatory limits.
CLICK HERE to read the 25 page (PDF) report.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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