Campaign Finance Laws Backfire on Public by Bradley A. Smith Bradley A. Smith is an associate professor at Capital University Law School, Columbus, Ohio, and an adjunct scholar with the Cato Institute. It comes as a surprise to many Americans to learn that, prior to 1974, there were effectively no limits at all on who could give what to political campaigns. Large gifts were the rule, not the exception. Contribution limits have forced our representatives to spend an inordinate amount of time raising cash and made them more dependent on special interests who can provide them with cash.
People have a First Amendment right to participate in politics.
Efforts to restrict that right are like squeezing a balloon. The air simply bulges out elsewhere. Such practices make litigation over spending and contributions a prominent campaign tactic and actually make it harder to determine who really is backing a candidate. It is time to return to the system that served us well for nearly 200 years. Let's do away with the arcane restrictions on contributions.