Getting Money Out of Politics

We all agree it needs to happen, but how do we get there?

This is what we face today, ten years after the passing of Citizens United. All of these conflicts of interest represent important barriers to achieving progressive policy change in the interest of public health.

The current laws around campaign financing and political contributions hail largely from two supreme court cases, Buckley v. Valeo and Citizens United v. FEC. In 1976, Senator James Buckley challenged the Federal Election Campaign Act claiming that the law infringed on 1st Amendment rights of expression. The Supreme Court ruled that limiting campaign expenditures was unconstitutional, but limiting individual campaign donations was not. This case was later followed by 2010 Supreme Court case Citizens United v. FEC, during which the Justice’s ruled to overturn laws that limited unions and corporations from using general treasury funds toward campaign contributions. Thus, allowing for a fresh stream of money to enter the political realm that had previously been barred entry.

However, all organizations involved have recognized the importance of starting at the state level, with pro-Article 5 efforts focused on passing a call for an Article 5 convention in every state, and anti-Article 5 organizations focused on raising public support at the state level and “holding state, federal and local representatives accountable”. Presumably, anti-Article 5 folks believe that public and State government pressure on Congress could lead to 2/3rds support for a constitutional amendment through the traditional route.

Pro- and anti- Article 5 organizations, have both garnered significant grassroots support and both follow decentralized grassroots models for achieving their goals. This leads me to believe they are well situated to eventually win on this issue. However, their diametrically opposed strategies for reaching a constitutional amendment continue to be a significant barrier to collaboration, which is required for greater reach and impact of their grassroots base.

This movement faces many hurdles to achieving its ultimate goal. However, some of the lessons in Crutchfield’s “How Change Happens” can be useful for informing next steps toward greater collaboration between organizations, in an effort to reach a collective vision for getting money out of politics.

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