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Mark Schmitt was in the thick of the fight for campaign finance reform. In a long article in the spring issue of Democracy: A Journal of Ideas (free registration required but worth it), he looks back on it with an honesty and clarity that reformers of all stripes would do well to emulate. Instead of hugging McCain-Feingold ever closer and vilifying those who find ways around it, he reexamines what he was trying to do and why it didn’t work. (This kind of reflection is vanishingly rare on any issue or from any point in the political spectrum; if you know of other examples, I’m all ears.)
“And even if you could restrict every avenue, would you want to? The goal of political reform should be to expand the range of choices and voices in the system.” Given the emergence of the netroots and more political involvement generally, he recycles the old ACLU idea of “floors without ceilings” — public funding not tied to spending limits. He likes New York City’s system, where small campaign contributions receive a four-to-one match, allowing the less affluent to speak the money language a little louder, without limiting the speech of the affluent.
