Via WaPo: Campaign Finance Measure Approved

The House approved campaign finance legislation last night that would benefit Republicans by placing strict caps on contributions to nonprofit committees that spent heavily in the last election while removing limits on political parties’ spending coordinated with candidates.

The bill passed 218 to 209 in a virtual party-line vote.

This illustrates one of the many pitfalls of campaign finance “reform”–the fact that the party in power can work to construe the rules in a way that aids their tactics in fund-raising over those of their opponents. This is not a good thing, insofar as what we should be wanting in a democracy is open competition.

The whole 527 situation itself is a response to the convoluted rules that BCRA (aka, McCain-Feingold) created and I have no doubt that if 527s were “reformed” out of existence that there would be a new way devised to acquire and spend money on politics. As long as there is a First Amendment, a way will be found to gather and spend money on political speech–it would be far better to acknowledge that fact and craft policies that recognize that reality.

Until Congress fully acknowledged the Scotty Rule of Campaign Finance Reform, the nonsensical rules-making will continue.

Ultimately, it may not matter, as the bill probably won’t become law. Still, you have to love politics:

Although the measure’s prospects for approval in the Senate are considered slim, House Republicans wanted a vote on what they could describe as “reform” legislation. At the same time, GOP leaders sought to embarrass Democrats by making them vote in apparent support of the use of soft money in federal campaigns.