Sup. Court Nixes Vermont Campaign Limits
By Sam Garchik
Did campaign finance reform suffer a setback or a jump forward yesterday when the Supreme Court, in six seperate opinions, struck down a Vermont law that capped donations to gubernatorial candidates at $400?
A New York Times editorial claimed that the new court affirmed campaign regulation in striking down the cap on contributions. This editorial sees the court ruling as a victory for campaign finance reform because the court let the idea of limits stand, even if they disallowed the actual limits in Vermont because the court said, they hurt challengers and help incumbents.
Meanwhile, USA Today used this opportuniy to remind Americans that voters in 7 states offer candidates the option of public financed races. (Of course, ICCI has been working on that for several years.)
Also, this article sums up the interested sides of this debate (Was the ACLU really agaisnt campaign finance reform?), and discusses the law and the future of Vermont elections in detail.
