Campaign Costs

The League of Women Voters of San Diego urges support of public financing of elections for members of the U.S. House of Representatives. The costs of campaigns are out of control. Increasingly, legislators are sacrificing the public interest to special-interest fund-raising. The average challenger faces an incumbent’s wall of PAC money and congressional privilege that is daunting and often defeating. No wonder the American voter feels disenfranchised and angry!

Special-interest influence must be curtailed. Spending limits are needed to restrain escalating costs and to allow challengers to compete. Candidates must receive public financing so they can get their messages across to the voters without being dependent on special-interest money. Public financing will return citizens and voters to the central role in elections. It will tell candidates that they do not have to go to the highest bidder to raise the funds to compete. Public financing is the cleanest money in American politics. It is financing with “no strings” attached.

LOUISE ARNOLD, President, San Diego