Public Financing of Campaigns on July 26th 2006 at the National Press Club

The Federalist Society is hosting a debate on public financing of campaigns and the effectiveness of partial funding and “clean election” laws. CCP’s Academic Advisors David Primo and Jeffrey Milyo suggest that these reforms are being adopted without sufficient attention to scientific studies, which to date, find little-to-no systematic impact from existing funding programs. CCP Litigation Consultant Erik Jaffe will serve as Moderator, and Panelists include Prof. Michael P. McDonald of George Mason University and CCP Academic Advisor Prof. David M. Primo of the University of Rochester.

Please register as seating is limited.

MOSCOW — Six years into the presidency of Vladimir Putin, who will host President Bush and other leaders of the industrial world at a summit this weekend, political freedom is severely constrained in Russia.

While tolerating dissent in some pockets of society, the state is relentlessly tightening its control in parliament, political parties, regional governments, courts, activist organizations and the mass media.

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Opposition parties sometimes find that the entire bureaucracy seems to be conspiring to block even their most basic operations.

- Peter Finn, "Putin Will Host G-8 In a Russia Under Ever Tighter Control," The Washington Post, A1, July 13, 2006 

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The organized press has long served as a complaisant cheerleader for campaign finance restrictions, confident that the regulations they enthusiastically support will never come back to be used against them.  After all, most all campaign finance laws include a “press exemption.”  

But there ought to be growing apprehension among traditional media reporters and editorialists about their support for campaign finance restrictions.  According to this story, the Arizona “Clean Elections” Commission will soon be in the business of deciding whose endorsements are “legitimate” news and whose are not.

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