Federal Election Commission Chairman Trevor Potter discussed the history and future of regulations governing the financing of elections in a lecture last night in Rockefeller Center.
Potter devoted most of his speech to chronicling the history of campaign expenditure regulations and then related it to current attempts to reform the system.
"There has always been money in politics," he said. "For most of the 20th century, the history of campaign finance reform is the history of cyclical attempts to control money in politics."
Potter said he supports a new approach to the problem, involving the intervention of an independent committee to oversee campaign financing.
He said the bipartisan death of the proposed Campaign Spending Reform Act of 1994 in the Senate was caused by both partisan and philosophical differences, which would make it difficult for Congress to ever exact a workable compromise.
While Potter said the media hails the proposed legislation as a "brave attempt" to deal with this long-standing issue, he noted the lengthy history of campaign finance regulation and reform.
He explained a recurring cycle in which the passage of government legislation is followed by the discovery and exploitation of its loopholes, which eventually results in scandal and public outcry. This, he said, leads to the passage of additional laws, which sets the cyclical process in motion again.
Potter discussed Watergate, presenting it as a watershed event that instigated a wave of election spending reforms.
Potter said the Federal Election Commission, established in 1972, enforces the government regulations, oversees the disclosure of spending, and administers public funding for presidential elections.
But the Supreme Court declared that it was unconstitutional to limit independent expenditures and candidates' personal spending, equating "political spending to the right to free speech," Potter said.
Potter discussed how this decision has influenced subsequent attempts at reform, since the 1976 Act codifying the Supreme Court's findings remains in effect.
Potter referred to Senate Minority Leader Robert Dole (R-Kan.), who expressed sentiments about partisan interferences and suggested an "outside nonpartisan group" look at the issue.
Potter said he supports this idea as a method to institute "real" reform.
"The system needs to be fair and needs to be seen as fair," he said. In addition he said the system "needs to ensure that all candidates can be heard by voters," and "involve as few impediments as possible to voter participation."
