— Campaign finance reform is one of the worst ideas since term limits, because it empowers special interest groups what are wholly unaccountable, just as TL empowered lobbyists and unelected staffers. This article by damn fine reporter Greg Lucas (Campaign funding’s loopholes wide open / Candidates’ limits don’t apply to groups) addresses the reality of CFR:
“To date, we have raised twice as much as we spent in 2000. We knew we had to up the ante on independent expenditures because with contribution limits, we had to make the voter contact ourselves,” said Cassandra Pye, executive director of the Jobs PAC.
Lucas used to write the California Insider political humor column for the Chronicle, until Carole Migden compained too much about him and they canned it. It’s strange that he sticks around that swamp.