By Luke Wachob
In reality, campaign-finance restrictions are closer to being the epitome of corruption than its antithesis. The crony capitalists here are not citizens with the gall to donate up to $2,600 per election to the candidate of their choice, but the incumbent politicians and entrenched political interests crafting legislation — and now constitutional amendments — to limit speech about candidates in order to protect their privilege and prevent new voices from getting a seat at the table.
Despite incredibly low approval ratings for Congress, incumbents continue to win reelection at high rates. The advantages incumbents typically hold over challengers — name recognition, ties to party leaders and media members, databases of donors from past campaigns, free postage — are difficult to overcome. The challenges are further exacerbated by contribution limits and other restrictions on fundraising. Given the evidence that money is necessary to win an election, but not sufficient, government can best promote competitive elections simply by getting out of the way of candidates’ fundraising and imposing as few limits as possible.
Virginia voters proved once again that we are not brainwashed by whichever candidate has more money to spend. Americans are smart enough to know whom they want to vote for. We should stop pretending that campaign-finance restrictions are about protecting the public and admit their true purpose: protecting incumbent politicians from challengers.
