It is Election Day, a hallmark of our many freedoms. We wish the candidates well, and expect that the judgment of the voters will do much to drive our democracy forward.
This has not been an uplifting month. The nation is unsettled by the situation in Iraq and the scandals in Congress. The Colorado ballot is blessed with quality candidates, but you wouldn’t know that from the campaign that is now ending.
Campaign ads have been darkly suggestive and fleeting. Candidate A is irresponsible. Candidate B is incompetent or worse. Cue the scary music.
Much of the negativity is the work of 527 committees. These groups are maddeningly unaccountable, yet they play a major role in shaping the campaigns.
The irony is that the 527s were born of an attempt to improve the system. In 2002, reforms were advanced both nationally and in Colorado in an effort to diminish the impact of money in politics and make room for people and ideas.
But big money is not easily deterred. Soon, in 2004, contributions began flowing to advocacy groups formed under Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Service code. They are not regulated by state or federal election commissions – and are not subject to the same contribution limits as political action committees.
In Colorado, these groups are spending an unprecedented $13.5 million to influence statehouse and congressional races as well as ballot referendums.
The 527s are not allowed to directly support individual candidates or work in coordination with them, an independence that has bred irresponsibility. “Given the lack of connectiveness – by law – to candidates, it has really unleashed these 527s to make the wildest, most extreme charges without any accountability,” said political consultant Floyd Ciruli.
The effect of this reckless advocacy has yet to be gauged. The virtual anonymity of those backing the ads could undercut the message that voters take away or even backfire completely, said Robert Duffy, a Colorado State University political science professor. “There are a lot of assumptions made about the role of money in politics, but there’s not a lot of research,” he said. “The old joke goes, ‘Fifty percent of all campaign money is wasted, but no one knows which 50 percent.”‘
Last spring, the U.S. House narrowly passed a measure that would attempt to tighten up 527 operations. We imagine that whoever prevails today, campaign reform will be back on the table. And before you know it, it’ll be Election Day 2008.
