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The skyrocketing cost of election campaigns has favored the wealthy candidate and created an increasing dependency on PAC money.

UAHC Resolution on "Congressional Campaign Finance Reform," 1984

Entering the 107th Congress, campaign finance reform was at a crossroads. The 2000 elections shattered all previous records for the amount of money in our politics. Not only did television expenditures break $2 billion, we saw the most expensive Senate race ever and the most expensive House race ever, not to mention the bank-breaking presidential contest. But the news was not all bad: we also saw the success of the first two "clean elections"-elections wherein some candidates opted to rely solely on public financing for their campaigns-in Vermont and Maine. And Congress began with great expectations for the passage of the McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act. It does appear that the McCain-Feingold bill has more than 60 supporters for the first time, meaning that it can no longer be stalled by a filibuster. In the House, prospects for a companion bill (H.R. 380), sponsored by Representatives Christopher Shays (R-CT) and Marty Meehan (D-MA), to pass again look good. We will also be working with coalitions in numerous states to build upon the success of the elections in Vermont and Maine by organizing to pass voluntary public financing programs like "Clean Money, Clean Elections" in more states.

In light of the flaws in our electoral system that the 2000 presidential election and its aftermath exposed, the new Administration and Congress have professed the desire to cooperatively evaluate and reform components of our voting system. We will support efforts to ensure that necessary and appropriate steps at the federal and state levels will be taken to guarantee that all eligible persons wishing to vote are given a meaningful opportunity to do so and that all votes deemed legitimate are counted accordingly. We will monitor the array of bills in Congress that address election reform as well as the dynamics of any election reform commissions that mobilize. And we will ensure that the voice of the Jewish community, which historically has worked to gain and protect the franchise for the disadvantaged in our country, will be heard on these important issues.

 

Learn to do good. Devote yourselves to justice. Aid the wronged. Uphold the rights of the orphan. Defend the cause of the widow. - Isaiah:1:17 Justice, justice shall you pursue - Deuteronomy 16 You are not required to complete the work, Yet you are not allowed to desist from it. - Pirkei Avot, 2:21