Money in Politics Groups Mixed on Obama’s Speech

Gov. Buddy Roemer’s response to President Obama’s criticism of the “corrosive influence of money in politics” during last night’s State of the Union speech says a lot:

[blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/#!/BuddyRoemer/status/162007322267357185"]

The president challenged Congress to ban insider trading among lawmakers and touched on Washington’s everyday corruption: “Let’s make sure people who bundle campaign contributions for Congress can’t lobby Congress, and vice versa.” Bundlers solicit campaign contributions from their various (and often very rich) networks in return for access to the candidates they work for.

But, beyond that, many groups focused on campaign finance reform and money in politics found the speech to be lacking.

The Sunlight Foundation thought Obama was wrong to focus primarily on insider trading with a relatively toothless proposal:

As wrong as insider trading may be, money in politics isn’t about self-dealing. Obama is closer to hitting the mark in raising the issue of bundlers, but unfortunately raises a proposal that’s unlikely to get discussed beyond tomorrow. A ban on lobbying or contributing to campaigns is unlikely to pass Congress, and unlikely to pass muster with the courts.  Even if it did, it would do little to mitigate the “corrosive influence of money in politics”, since bundlers are often just the bag men operating at others’ behest. If you’re not getting the Chris Dodds of the world, your lobbying reform plan is probably aiming a little too low.

The Center for Responsive Politics noted that Obama paid little heed to Citizens United:

Unlike his speech last year, Obama did not criticize the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling, which opened the door for unlimited individual, corporate and union political expenditures. Nor did Obama push for new disclosure rules for political advertisements.

Bob Edgar, president and CEO of Common Cause, wanted Obama to go even further:

But to really put people back in charge, we must force passage of a constitutional amendment that will permit sensible controls on corporate political spending.

Public Campaign agreed, asking for a bigger crackdown on the undue influence of special interests in politics:

“This is an important but small step toward severing the ties between elected officials and the special interests hoping to influence them through campaign cash,” said Nick Nyhart, president and CEO of Public Campaign. “It is the big money behind the lobbyists that’s the problem. It’s not the hired guns, but those that hire them. You’ve got to go after the boss. We need big solutions.”