Here are six steps the federal government could take to restore trust in the political process. Please encourage your members of Congress and the Administration to support them.
1. Reduce candidates’ dependence on big money.
Congress and state legislatures should provide public support for candidates who base their campaigns on small donations by offering a grant of public funds at the start of the campaign and matching small donations throughout the campaign. They should establish a tax credit for small donations to encourage more widespread participation.
Members of Congress should be able to spend their workdays representing their constituents, not fundraising. One option is to bar sitting members of Congress from directly soliciting campaign contributions. Although it doesn’t stop others from fundraising on members’ behalf, it’s a start.
2. Increase transparency.
Congress should pass legislation to ensure that voters will be able to know who is sponsoring the spate of ads they see just before elections. The President should make federal contractors disclose their political spending as a condition of doing business with the government.
3. Strengthen and enforce existing laws.
The Federal Election Commission should issue and enforce stronger regulations that maintain the separation between candidates and SuperPACs. The FEC should suspend the registration of SuperPACs and non-connected PACs whose spending is not truly independent of candidates and political parties.
Congress should enact structural reforms to make the FEC more effective and independent.
The government should examine the election-related activities of 501(c)(4) civic organizations and 501(c)(6) trade associations to ensure that electioneering is not their primary activity or purpose and that they were not formed primarily to hide the source of campaign contributions.
4. Increase accountability.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) should require publicly traded corporations to disclose their political spending to shareholders. The SEC was considering such a rule, but in a last-minute rider to last December’s budget bill, Congress cut off all funding for it. A similar rider prevents the IRS from examining the sources and bona fides of certain non-profits’ political spending.
5. Expand the window for stricter “electioneering communications” rules.
These rules should be in effect for the actual length of modern campaigns—the full election year for congressional campaigns and 120 days before the first primary for presidential races. Right now, these restrictions are only in effect 60 days before a general election and 30 days before a primary election or caucus.
6. Amend the Constitution
Consider amending the Constitution to provide that Congress and state legislatures have the power to establish narrow, fair and content-neutral controls on election-related spending to restore public trust in politics and give us a fair opportunity to participate in the system that elects our representatives.
