Print Edition Archives Site Index Raise the Limit . . . Since then, we have had six other presidents, the arrival of the Internet and enough inflation to make the 1974 dollar worth about 35 cents. Some Democrats and liberal interest groups, avowedly champions of reform, are finding creative rationalizations for opposing an increase in the hard-money contribution limit. The second argument is that raising the contribution limit is bad because the goal should be to reduce the amount spent on campaigns.
Political communication is expensive in mass-media America.
Candidates are competing not only with each other but with all the commercial products and services vying for viewers' attention with their own ads and promotions. Contributions of reasonable size that help candidates get their messages out are good for democracy, not a threat. Such an amendment would strengthen their bill, not damage it, and certainly should not provide an excuse for Daschle or other Democrats to abandon it. Political journalism lost a notable figure last week with the death of Rowland Evans, for many years the co-author with Robert Novak of one of the most influential columns in this country. Like his partner and many others of us, Evans had his biases, but his hallmark was the doggedness of his reporting.