What is clean money anyway?

With increasing use of the Internet the public is made well aware of who and how much certain individuals and corporations donate their money. There are various websites that list campaign contributions such as this website. That website is one of many that includes a database that lists who contributed to any public officials campaign. There are even websites, like Public Campaign that advocate that candidate contributions should be “clean” in the sense that the candidates should be required to receive their money from legitimate sources and not from special interest groups.

I certainly believe that campaign money should be coming from legitimate sources and not the Mafia or anything but I hesitate to support Public Campaign’s efforts to prevent ‘special-interest groups’ from donating money. The term special interest group carries such a negative connotation. When a person thinks of an interest group they think of groups that represent oil such as PMI Oil. There are other organizations that are still classified under the name “special-interest group”, such as the Feminist Majority Foundation that represents women’s rights, the AFL-CIO that represent labor rights, and the National Education Association which is the national teacher’s union. These three major organizations have increased their support through the web and in turn have donated money to campaigns as well. If the Public Campaign were to be successful in removing this “special-interest” money from campaigns then that would mean ALL special interest groups, including the ones that speak on behalf of the people and not necessarily corporate interests.

The problem with campaign money is not interest groups donating money to the campaign per say but the fact that they do so in order to create puppets out of politicians. Interest groups donate to politicians in the hopes and the guarantee that these politicians will either introduce legislation that will have a positive outcome for the interest groups, or, will NOT introduce legislation that will hinder the interests of the group. Unfortunately, in America, money talks. If a group donates money then 9 times out of 10 their voice will be heard and the candidate they donate their money to will protect their interests.
It would be nice to have an election run solely on public funding and election in which the citizen’s interests are at the forefront of the election but it is almost naïve to think that this will ever occur. Eliminating special interest money from entering the campaign will only solve half of the problem. The other half is the fact that money, regardless of where is comes from, run America’s elections. Money equals attention in the media. Without money, a candidate cannot get any attention or time from the press, so what is a candidate supposed to do? They have to get money from somewhere and it is unfortunate that the money tends to come from large interest groups that may or may not be in the interest of the American people.

Ultimately, what needs to be reformed is not whether or not a candidate receives money from a special interest group but the fact that money makes our elections go round.