Campaign Reform: Pry It Loose

With California’s campaign reform law in legal limbo, candidates for governor raised and spent more money on their 1998 election campaigns than was spent in any state election, anywhere, in history. The obscene total was $118 million, nearly twice as much as then-Gov. Pete Wilson and his opponents spent four years earlier and almost as much as Bill Clinton and Bob Dole spent in 1996. With state campaign finance limits here and elsewhere being struck down or put in limbo by courts, the prospect for improvement is slight.

With no restrictions at all on how much a candidate could raise from any source, Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and his Republican opponent, Dan Lungren, got $100,000 or more each from dozens of donors. How could these donors not feel they’re owed something? In federal elections, individual donors are limited to $1,000 per candidate, though campaigns get around that with so-called soft money.

California voters want an end to the unfettered race for cash. Twice in a decade, they approved ballot initiatives imposing strict limits on the size of campaign contributions. Both laws have been struck down by federal courts as unconstitutionally limiting a candidate’s ability to communicate with voters.

Still alive--but in suspension--is Proposition 208, passed by voters in 1996. It put a $500 donation limit on statewide races, although candidates who accepted spending limits could accept up to $1,000 from each supporter. The case is on appeal and when it was argued in December before a federal appeals court, observers thought two of the three justices seemed inclined to reinstate the proposition.

But 208’s ultimate prospects may not be so good, considering recent actions of the U.S. Supreme Court. Late last year, the court refused to hear appeals involving laws similar to Proposition 208 that had been overturned in Ohio and Arkansas. And just last month, it agreed to hear the appeal of a Missouri law that set a $1,000 contribution limit, indicating the court may revisit its 1976 decision ratifying the $1,000 federal limit.

As the prospects for Proposition 208 dim, Gov. Davis ought to assemble a bipartisan campaign reform group to draft a workable reform proposal. The panel should include top legislators and political party leaders, academics, reformers, campaign finance experts and others. Without some restraint, the campaign finance wars will continue to escalate to absurd heights--or corrosive depths.