Campaign Reform

WASHINGTON -- One sure way to burnish your populist credentials these days is to come out for campaign-finance reform. A new book, ''The Buying of the President,'' published in association with the Center for Public Integrity, essentially argues that big monied interests -- not the voters -- decide who will be the nominees of the major political parties.This dovetails with the widespread view outside Washington that politics is a dirty game of money grubbing in which politicians sell their souls and their votes to the highest bidder.

Your editorial, "Good government wins," (April 15) falls short of the mark. Bestowing kudos to the General Assembly for passing legislation that makes campaign finance more helpful in "restoring integrity to the political process" is, with all due respect, misguided. As you point out, these reforms are offset with other provisions which result in a process that facilitates throwing more money into the political arena instead of getting money out. The actions of the General Assembly with regard to campaign finance reform bring to mind the following analogy.

WASHINGTON -- He might be head of the Maryland Democratic Party, but Nathan Landow likes to help fellow Democrats far from the state's borders.Mr. Landow and three other family members donated $10,500 -- mostly in $1,000 checks -- to candidates outside Maryland during the past two years, including contributions to Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., andSen. Albert Gore, D-Tenn., according to Federal Election Commission records.Meanwhile, Diana MacArthur, chairman of Dynamac Corp., a Rockville-based consulting and engineering company, spent $7,225 in out-of-state donations.

With most of the heavy lifting behind them, Maryland legislators will convene Monday for a final frenzy of lawmaking before the 2013 General Assembly session adjourns at midnight. Bills that could affect every dog owner and every driver who talks on a cell phone still await approval, as does legislation that would craft tighter rules on speed cameras, legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes and put new restrictions on government speed camera programs. Most lawmakers said these remaining issues and scores more will likely find resolution by the end of the day. "We're in pretty good shape," House Speaker Michael E. Busch said as his chamber adjourned Saturday afternoon.

State lawmakers, who turned their backs on two out of thre bills intended to reform campaign financing in Maryland, have one more chance to act before they face the voters in 1994.The proposals, which died in the House Judiciary Committee, would have speeded up and clarified the reporting of contributions.The two legislators pushing reform measures seen by some as essential to increasing the attention that Maryland voters pay to many political campaigns -- Dels. Gilbert J. Genn and Dana Lee Dembrow, both Montgomery County Democrats -- say they will try again in the next General Assembly.

WASHINGTON -- As a group of University of Maryland students stood outside a Democratic fund-raiser here last week, waving signs to protest the influence of money, President Clinton glided by in his motorcade and waved warmly.Then he waltzed into the $2,000-a-plate dinner and helped his party collect $3 million.While politicians of all makes and models have given an approving nod to the public's cry for reforming the way politics is practiced -- especially how campaigns are financed -- there has been little action and even less talk of these issues on the campaign trail.

WASHINGTON -- EMILY's List -- the political action committee that helped elect dozens of women to Congress and vowed to change the way this city works -- is now using its considerable clout to protect itself from campaign reform.The group, which doled out more money to House and Senate candidates than any other PAC during the last election, is fighting for a loophole in the campaign finance reform legislation proposed by President Clinton.The battle is over "bundling," a technique allowing PACs to amass hundreds of individual checks into single, more impressive donations to a candidate.

NOW THAT Gov.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has established himself as the premier fund-raiser in state history, the Democrats who control the General Assembly might have good reason to reconsider campaign finance reforms they have traditionally scorned. It could be a matter of political survival. The recent election showed that Ehrlich's finance wizards knew the loopholes in the law and were not shy about using them. The governor-elect's determination to build the state Republican Party is unquestioned, and his money machine is poised to pump money into challenges to incumbent Democrats in 2006.

Looking beyond the March 5 congressional primary, Republican Patrick L. McDonough yesterday took advantage of a news conference on pending campaign finance reform to challenge Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin, the 3rd District Democrat he probably will face in November.Mr. McDonough asked Mr. Cardin to sign a "campaign reform pledge" that includes several key provisions of the House's reform legislation known as the "Bipartisan Clean Congress Act," which the congressman is co-sponsoring.Mr. McDonough, a Republican from Perry Hall who is favored in a three-way primary to win the GOP nomination, asked Mr. Cardin, the presumed Democratic nominee, to agree to four campaign reform measures, similar to those included in the House legislation.

WASHINGTON -- During the 1990s, television viewers knew an election was approaching when ads urged them to call Candidate X and tell him Y. In 1996, for example, Montana viewers were told: "Call Bill Yellowtail and tell him to support family values." This was the tag line for an ad that said Yellowtail, an environmentalist and a Democratic candidate for Congress, had taken "a swing at his wife," failed to pay child support and had been convicted of a felony. It was no surprise to anyone that Yellowtail lost the election.

The Senate gave its preliminary approval Tuesday to a comprehensive campaign finance reform bill after refusing to strip out a provision letting counties set up their own public-financing systems.  The measure, which has already passed the House, could receive a final vote as early as Wednesday. It would need to be reconciled with a slightly different House version.  Among other things, the legislation would raise campaign donation limits that haven't changed in two decades, curb giving through multiple corporate entities to evade those limits, increase reporting requirements and give the State Board of Elections new enforcement powers.

A commission set up to advise the General Assembly how to reform its laws governing campaign financing edged closer to consensus on some key issues but has a lot of ground to cover at its final meeting scheduled for Sept. 27. The Commission to Study Campaign Finance Law reached a clear consensus on some enforcement issues -- extending the statute of limitations for misdemeanor violations of campaign finance laws from two years to three and allowing the State Board of Elections to issue civil citations for some less severe violations without having to refer matters to the State Prosecutors' Office.

This afternoon, Gov.Martin O'Malleyplans to sign what may be the most significant step toward increasing transparency in Maryland's system of campaign finance in years: a requirement that those who contribute more than $500 to a single candidate during an election cycle list their occupation and employer. That's a good thing; it will give the public a much better idea of who is backing candidates for office and why. However, the fact that this step only brings Maryland up to some semblance of the standard the federal government has employed since the 1970s, and a majority of other states have long held as well, shows just how far the state has to go if voters are to have confidence that the entire campaign finance system isn't just a means for special interests to buy influence.

It has been two years since the Supreme Court issued its decision in the case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, and we are only now just beginning to see how its overturning of a century of campaign finance law is distorting the electoral process. Rather than acting truly independently of campaigns, as the majority of justices envisioned, these entities exclusively act on behalf of individual candidates - and are typically run by former aides. Rather than encouraging the universal right of free speech, the ruling has had the effect of providing a megaphone for the rich to drown out all other voices.

Democracy has been called a government of laws, not of men; but who makes the laws that govern democracy? Not you, me, or our fellow citizens — at least, not according to the five-justice conservative majority on the Supreme Court, who continue to chip away at our authority to govern ourselves. We must reclaim that authority soon or risk losing it forever. On June 27, the five conservative justices struck down an attempt by the state of Arizona to preserve fair and meaningful participation in its elections.

In your recent editorial on Maryland and campaign finance reform you state that in addition to the limited liability corporation (LLC) loophole, there are others sorely in need of attention ("A boost for campaign finance reform" Feb. 17). We very much appreciate Gov. Martin O'Malley's support of this bill, just as we appreciate the report done by Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler on several needed campaign finance reforms. What distinguishes this major loophole from the others, and what you would not know from reading the attorney general's report, is legislation to eliminate it has passed the House of Delegates six times in the past 10 years.

Peace and Quiet in Pasadenaancestors had lived. I graciously accepted additional transportation costs and lack of city conveniences, for after retirement peace and quiet become very desirable. My automobile experience has been very uneventful.I realize that Mary Pat Clarke and others live by the law of "get elected no matter what." If third parties get stuck with the bill so that their electorate can have a subsidized ride, so be it.A somewhat similar situation exists with "red-lining," which is where areas that are high in real estate loan losses are avoided or charged a high rate by lenders.

WASHINGTON -- Mr. Campaign Reform -- Sen. John McCain -- joined the fight against punch-card ballots and their various evil chads and dimples the other day with yet another congressional hearing on how to prevent a repeat of November's Florida presidential election fiasco. The focus once again was on voting equipment and how its shortcomings disenfranchised millions of voters and how voting irregularities of one kind or another deprived minorities of their right to cast ballots and have them counted.

Efforts to bring some modest reform to Maryland's loophole-ridden campaign finance laws got a boost this week from Gov. Martin O'Malley. But the top Democrat's newfound interest in closing one of the more glaring deficiencies in state law is tempered by his desire to simultaneously loosen overall limits on political giving. As Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler's recent task force reported, there are at least two dozen or more holes to plug in Maryland campaign finance law. Mr. O'Malley has thrown his support to closing exactly one — the ability of developers and others to use limited liability corporations (LLCs)