Campaign-finance reform gets the usual insincere, ‘We’re gonna do it’ Lee Leonard Columbus Dispatch August 30, 2004 The news conference might as well have been called an "olds" conference. Gov. Bob Taft and Republican legislative leaders, or those pretending to be, appeared in front of the Statehouse press corps and the TV cameras last week and announced that they are going to clean up the campaignfinance law. We’ll believe it when we see it. These folks have promised meaningful reform before. "No, this time we really mean it," was their latest message. Right. When that day comes, William McKinley’s statue will hop on an elephant and fly over the Statehouse. Campaign-finance reform, despite the best efforts of the news media to push for some credibility, has been nothing more than an attempt to make the money game look fair without hindering the fund-raising abilities of the politicians. When the state government was divided, the legislature could never pass a bill. What Democrats wanted, the Republicans couldn’t stand, and vice versa. Nothing got done as each side exercised veto power. When Republicans took over the government in 1995, they passed a bill, but only after an unlikely coalition of ultraconservatives and liberal goodgovernment types threatened to take a real reform proposal to the voters. The Republicans knew exactly what they were doing. For years, they had fought against limits on political donations, saying that disclosure was the answer. Let donors give as much as they want, but spread it on the public record for all to see. If the people don’t like it, they can vote against the scoundrels who take money from the vested interests. This is not much different than those who say negative campaigning is self-policing; that when campaign ads go over the line, the people will rise up and smite the candidate who badmouths his or her opponent. Not likely. Negative campaigning works. The Republicans in the mid-’90s wrote a campaign-finance law that protected political parties and caucuses. They said those entities were the lifeblood of democracy and should be allowed to raise and spend money at will. But the GOP also created loopholes that have loomed large in the past eight years. The loopholes exploited the dominance of Republican caucus fundraising and allowed certain officeholders to hide money in county party operating accounts and with so-called issue-advocacy groups that scorch their adversaries via TV ads without ever having to identify their sponsors. The legal eagles say it’s tough to identify donors to issue-advocacy groups without trampling on privacy and free-speech rights. Former Senate President Richard H. Finan once lamented that potential donors get shy when they know they’ll be named. Good. Individuals trying to influence public policy shouldn’t be handed hoods and masks. As for the loopholes that enable money to be laundered and hidden, the lawmakers have had plenty of time to close them. But it never seems to be the right time: Early in the session is not the right time. Too busy. Got to pass the budget. Anywhere close to the election year is not the right time. We’re in the middle of a campaign. Can’t change the rules. After the election? Awww! We ran out of time. And so when Taft and the legislative leaders get up and say they might as well wait until after the election, they’re stalling. They haven’t done anything all summer on tax reform, civil-justice reform or campaign-finance reform. They say any new rules wouldn’t apply to the 2004 campaign, so let’s just take our time. Did they ever consider getting something done early for a change? The GOP stalwarts say they have to be extra careful because they want to get it right this time. They want to make sure they’ve closed all the loopholes. Believe that? More likely they want to make sure a few back doors are left ajar so they’ll have a place to wriggle through in case of fire. Since they’re waiting until after the election, you can send some of them your own Donald Trump-style message Nov. 2: Don’t bother to come back in January. Lee Leonard covers the Statehouse for The Dispatch. lleonard@dispatch.com