Regulating the mother's milk of politics: Why Washington's campaign finance law constitutionally prohibits state parties from spending soft money on issue ads

The possibility that elected officials may exchange their votes on pending legislation for donations to help their re-election campaigns poses a serious threat to democratic government. To alleviate this risk, governments at the state and national levels regulate how politicians finance their campai...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Washington law review 2005-02, Vol.80 (1), p.191
Main Author: Holleman, Scott
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Advertising expenditures
Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act 2002-US
Campaign contributions
Constitutional law
Expenditures
Political finance
Political parties
State court decisions
State elections
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Summary:The possibility that elected officials may exchange their votes on pending legislation for donations to help their re-election campaigns poses a serious threat to democratic government. To alleviate this risk, governments at the state and national levels regulate how politicians finance their campaigns. However, these regulatory efforts have been challenged on First Amendment grounds. The Washington State Supreme Court relied on the Buckley opinion in Washington State Republican Party v. Washington Public Disclosure Commission, when it ruled that the First Amendment barred the state from limiting certain expenditures by political parties on issue advertisements. However, in McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, which clarified and expanded upon the Buckley decision, the US Supreme Court recently upheld some restrictions on issue ad expenditures. It is argued that, in light of the McConnell decision, the state court's decision misinterpreted Buckley. The Washington State Supreme Court improperly concluded that Washington State's prohibition on the expenditure of soft money for issue advertisements by the state's political parties was unconstitutional.
ISSN:0043-0617