The Center for Competitive Politics this week sent a letter to the Nebraska legislature advocating the repeal of the Campaign Finance Limitation Act (CFLA). CFLA supposedly attempts to ‘level the playing field’ in elections by allowing participating candidates to obtain tax funds if their opposition does not opt into the program and exceeds a spending cap.
“The Supreme Court ruled in the 2008 case Davis v. FEC that the state cannot provide preferential treatment to some candidates based on the spending of their opponents, and is widely expected in the next few months to strike down a similar Arizona law in the case McComish v. Bennett” said CCP President Sean Parnell. “In addition to being unconstitutional, these programs have generally been shown to have failed to achieve their goals.”
LB 142, currently under consideration, would substitute CFLA with an increase in disclosure requirements. Although the current threshold is $250, under the proposed system the threshold would me moved to $50 and mandate daily campaign-finance filings.
“While jettisoning CFLA is the right move, there is no need to lower the threshold for reporting,” said Parnell. “No one is bribing candidates with dollar amounts ranging from $50 to $250, and the added disclosure burden would simply invade the privacy of citizens who want to support candidates that share their views.”
