News Release

November 20, 2002

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New Campaign Finance Legislation Hampers Election Competition
Impact will mean campaigns that are influenced less by parties and more by the media

WASHINGTON -- The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, which took effect on Nov. 6 and whose backers claim will make elections more competitive, will actually have the opposite effect, according to a new study from the Cato Institute.

New restrictions on soft money contributions and limitations on campaign advertising in the months prior to an election will end up favoring incumbents and create further hardships for challengers, argues Patrick Basham in "This is Reform? Predicting the Impact of the New Campaign Financing Regulations."

"The unintended consequences of the new constraints on political speech will serve only to further the journey of American political campaigning down a path seemingly anathema to the stated desires of the leading campaign finance regulators," writes Basham.

For example, Basham writes that because parties use soft money to register voters and conduct get-out-the-vote efforts, the BCRA will handicap mobilization efforts, and thus lead to fewer voters. Also, soft money contributions that would have gone to the parties will go to special interest groups -- who will remain unregulated by the BCRA -- instead, expanding the influence of these groups.

Another unintended consequence of the new legislation will be campaigns that are longer and more negative in tone, according in Basham. Because independent advertising, which is most often negative, is now restricted 60 days prior to Election Day, those ads will now run earlier than is currently the norm. In turn, major parties will have to "devote more of their slimmed-down advertising campaigns to match the independent ads' negativity."

Finally, the mainstream media will become more powerful actors in the political system, Basham argues. Because of the 60-day advertising ban, broadcast reports will not be offset by independent voices. Also, the print media will be financial beneficiaries of the new regulations because money that would have normally been spent on broadcast media will transfer to newspapers and magazines.

"This is Reform? Predicting the Impact of the New Campaign Financing Regulations"