Self-funded candidate rule brings campaign finance to court

A part of the McCain-Feingold reform law is being contested on behalf of wealthy candidates running for Congress.

from the April 21, 2008 edition

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A panel of federal judges ruled earlier in the Davis case that because Section 319 does not limit a candidate's ability to use personal wealth to win an election, there is no unconstitutional burden on free speech. The provision merely provides benefits to opponents to correct a potential imbalance in resources among candidates in the same political race, the court said.

But offering a windfall to one's political opponents when a candidate spends more than $350,000 creates an incentive not to spend more than that amount, critics of Section 319 say. That is a government incentive that chills free speech, they say.

"Section 319 operates solely as a stick deterring protected self-financed expenditures rather than as a carrot encouraging participation in an alternative campaign finance scheme," writes Benjamin Wood in a friend-of-the-court brief filed for the Cato Institute.

He says the measure burdens political speech in a way similar to a direct limit on campaign spending. Campaign spending limits were declared unconstitutional by the high court in a landmark 1976 campaign-finance case.

The primary rationale for campaign-finance laws is to prevent corruption or the appearance of corruption by reducing the political influence of wealthy special interests. But opponents of Section 319 say there is no corruptive taint when a candidate uses his or her own money to run for office.

Supporters of the law say corruption isn't Congress's only concern.

"Congress carefully balanced its interests in preventing corruption with its concern that non-wealthy candidates were being driven from the political process," writes Seth Waxman in a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of four campaign-reform advocacy groups.

The public perception is that wealthy candidates are unstoppable. But political scientists say just because someone knows how to make money doesn't mean they can convince people to vote for them.

"Self-financers tend not to be very successful," says Professor Steen, who worked as a paid consultant to the FEC on the Section 319 issue.

She says the millionaires' amendment, rather than protecting incumbents, has been most useful to nonincumbents in primary elections. It helps them get noticed in a crowded field brimming with money, she says.

In 2004, in the Democratic primary for a US Senate seat, a young state senator in Illinois faced a wealthy opponent who poured $28 million of his own money into the contest. Under provisions of the millionaires' amendment, the state senator received $1.86 million in supplemental fundraising. He went on to win the primary and the general election to become the junior US senator from Illinois. Now he's in an even bigger race. His name: Barack Obama.

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