According to the New York Times, Barack Obama’s party spent $852.9 million and Mitt Romney’s party spent $752.3 million campaigning for the presidential race. While the super political action committees only account for a portion of the campaign funding, they can receive unlimited amounts of funding from individuals, corporations, and labor unions. Why are we allowing so much money from special interests to influence campaigning?
Campaign reform has been put on the back burner for years, with candidates having little to no intention of changing the current standards. In Great Britain, campaign reform laws allow independent organizations to only donate 988,000 pounds/$1.6 million up to 12 months prior to the election and no more than 800 pounds/$500 in the same month as an election. Additionally, political advertising is banned on radio and television, which leaves the newspaper as the main source for campaigning.
While the British laws are not perfect, the United States can use them as a template to start our own campaign reform to remove special interest from campaigns and allow all parties to campaign equality.
Heather Garrett
Vancouver
