Sen. Montoya and Politics

In an article in The Times (“Montoya Case: How Many Other Rotten Apples Exist,” Part A, Feb. 4) I was quoted as saying “You can’t regulate politics.” Obviously, I didn’t make my position clear during the interview, since many aspects of politics have been regulated--for years. On the contrary, the point I was attempting to make was that no set of regulations, no matter how stringent, would ever prevent a “rotten apple” from violating the law. My concern, particularly given the post-Watergate “reforms” at the federal level, is that the wrong kinds of regulations could have unintended consequences on the fairness and accountability of the electoral process; over-regulating honest officials while not stopping individual acts of corruption. This could result in public office being attractive only to the wealthy, those with limited ability or those who would use their position merely as a stepping stone to a lucrative position with one of the private interests they dealt with while in office.

I also pointed out that focusing most proposed “reforms” on the restrictions and reporting requirements on individual legislators fails to deal with the underlying cause of institutional corruption, namely a campaign finance system which has escalated to the point where millions of dollars are routinely required, and will thus be raised, from those with a vested interest in influencing government.

If we really want to clean up government, we must eliminate the excessive amounts of private money in the electoral process by establishing a system of public financing and campaign spending limits.

LARRY L. BERG

Director, Unruh Institute of Politics

USC