opinion

Get ready for more big money in elections

In announcing his first bid for the presidency in 2007, Barack Obama spoke about the need for politicians to make good on promises to enact campaign finance reform.

"Too many times, after the election is over and after the confetti is swept away, all those promises fade from memory," he said. "The lobbyists and the special interests move in, and people turn away disappointed as before, left to struggle on their own."

As it turns out, that speech was far more prescient than Obama could have imagined — or his supporters would have wanted.

As a result of the $1.1 trillion spending package the president signed into law last month, the two major political party committees will now be able to collect significantly more money from individual donors to pay for the televised extravaganzas that pass for presidential nominating conventions.

Under the previously existing law, an individual donor could give no more than $32,400 to a single party committee, such as the Democratic National Committee or the Republican National Committee. The new law enables that same donor to contribute three times that amount to each of seven additional party committees established to pay for political conventions, legal expenses, recounts and other expenses.

This means one individual can now give almost $1.6 million to a national party and its various branches during a single two-year election cycle.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, opposed the White House in its efforts to ram the spending bill through Congress, arguing that the campaign finance provisions would "drown out the voices of the American people and massively expand the role of big money in our elections."

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the administration did not support the campaign finance elements of the legislation. That may be, but those provisions were slipped into the bill only because Senate Democrats wanted them there and were willing to work with Republican House leaders to ensure that happened.

No wonder. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee owes millions of dollars for additional office space it began leasing last year, and this legislation will enable it to dispose of that debt by using large donations to pay for buildings and construction. The bill will also help Republicans who have been concerned about their ability to stage a 2016 convention in the style to which they have become accustomed. A scaled-back convention would be an embarrassment for House Speaker John Boehner, who hails from Ohio, where the GOP convention is to be staged.

So it's the two parties' inability to budget their expenses and live within their means that prompted lawmakers to look to millionaire donors for additional financing. The irony is that living within one's means is a philosophy that's sure to be championed from the podiums at both of these nominating conventions. Chances are, party leaders will also use their prime-time exposure to call for an end to special-interest financing of elections.

They will probably do all of that with a straight face — just as Obama did in 2007.