Despite his ongoing legislative assault on the free speech and association rights of the American people, Senator John McCain, a frontrunner for the 2008 GOP Presidential nomination, refuses to directly answer questions about whether he will campaign within the Presidential Public Financing system or abandon that system in favor of raising more campaign dollars to support his political aspirations.
Senator McCain has made so-called “clean elections” a staple of his political career. Despite significant First Amendment concerns, he has championed strict restrictions on political speech toward that stated end.
He, along with his “reform” colleagues – Senator Russ Feingold and Representatives Christopher Shays and Marty Meehan – brought us the McCain-Feingold Campaign Reform Act of 2002, which muzzles the voices of the American people at times when it is most important for them to speak – during elections. Senator McCain has endorsed regulating Bloggers (aka Free speech on the Internet). And, he is sponsoring legislation to “further clamp down on independent ‘527’ organizations” – ironically groups Senator McCain created through Congress’s passage of the McCain-Feingold bill.
Senator McCain’s ongoing efforts to muzzle political speech have earned him the title of the Senate’s “chief campaign finance reformer.”
As such, we believe Senator McCain has an obligation to the American people to clearly state his intentions on whether he will abide by the public financing system’s fundraising limitations in his bid for the White House. We believe Senator McCain should end his game of political dodge ball on this issue and “talk straight” with the American people.
The “$traight Talk?” Blog is a project of the Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF), a constitutional and free-market advocacy organization with more than 250,000 supporters and activists nationwide.
Since its founding in 1998, the Center for Individual Freedom has been a consistent advocate for preserving the free speech and association rights of all Americans. CFIF was a plaintiff in the U.S. Supreme Court case McConnell v. FEC, which challenged the constitutionality of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, commonly referred to as “McCain-Feingold.” More recently, CFIF won an important First Amendment victory before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which ruled that Louisiana’s campaign finance law does not restrict or regulate independent political issue advertising
To be sure, CFIF, like most Conservative and Libertarian activists, opposes public financing. We believe there is something fundamentally wrong with taxpayer dollars, albeit voluntary, being used to fund political campaigns.
But Senator McCain has always portrayed himself as a man of principle, particularly when it comes to “money in politics.” Will the Senate’s “chief campaign finance reformer” abandon his campaign finance principles – regardless of how faulty they may be — and forgo the Presidential Public Financing system’s fundraising limitations?
Check back often as “$traight Talk?” will provide you up-to-the-minute coverage of how everything unfolds.
