Mississippi's loose campaign finance laws allow lawyers and companies to contribute heavily to the judges they appear before. That is terrible for justice, since the courts are teeming with perfectly legal conflicts of interest.
If the need for comprehensive campaign finance reform was not already clear, the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United permitting unlimited corporate and union spending in campaigns certainly made it so in 2010.
The campaign finance scandal in America is the global warming of American political life - with cash substituting for deadly solar radiation.
Well, paycheck protection is an important ingredient for a successful campaign finance reform measure.
I certainly want campaign finance reform. I just wish this would do it in a way that would stand up to a constitutional challenge.
One of the biggest issues for me is campaign finance reform.
The reason that minorities and women don't have a better shot at getting elected to the Senate or to statewide office is because the campaign finance rules are so skewed as to make it very difficult for non-traditional candidates to raise the money necessary to get elected.
Many progressives understand Scalia, and other conservative judges, in crassly political terms - as opponents of affirmative action, abortion, gun control, and campaign finance legislation. But what Scalia cared most about was clear, predictable rules, laid down in advance.
I have gone from a proponent of campaign finance reform to a revolutionary during my time in public service.