Introduction; Money-raising distracts politicians

[Michael E Morrell <mmorrell@mail.astate.edu>]

By way of introduction, I am a professor of political science that studies democratic theory (and who has also been involved in political campaigns, so not all my knowledge is theoretical). As such, this issue is one I have studied and is, for me, the most important issue we are currently facing.

I'm sure we will get into many of the subjects discussed so far, but I want to throw one out that has not been mentioned. Often the justification for CFR is the control/access/corruption issue. I would like to suggest that an equally, and maybe even more, disturbing issue is the amount of time government officials must spend raising funds. To put a twist on James Madison's words, if men were angels, we wouldn't need campaign finance reform. No matter what system we create, people will still try to buy access. I believe, however, that politicians would be more than willing to give up the rat-chase in search of dollars that takes time away from being public servants. Of course, this would mean that any reform would have to make this possible.

Michael