News Release

December 3, 2002

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Cato Scholars Available to Comment on Campaign Finance Appeal
Federal panel set to hear arguments on McCain -Feingold legislation tomorrow

WASHINGTON -- A special panel of three federal judges will hear arguments tomorrow, Dec. 4, regarding a challenge to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, which took effect on Nov. 5. The legislation, also known as the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, bans political parties from accepting or spending soft money, and places restrictions on political advertising before elections.

Cato scholars John Samples, Patrick Basham, and Robert Levy have studied campaign finance law and are available for media interviews.

In "Meet the New Loopholes," Samples and Basham, respectively, director and senior fellow in Cato's Center for Representative Government, write that "elections will be less competitive, interest groups will become wealthier and our political system will become increasingly tied up in the courts."

In a study released last month, "This Is Reform? Predicting the Impact of the New Campaign Financing Regulations," Basham argues that the "reformed campaign of the future" will be less controlled by candidates and their parties, more influenced by the mainstream media, and less likely to attract voters than the typical campaign of today.

Levy, senior fellow in constitutional studies, writes in "Shays-Meehan Ad Nauseam" that "restoring the Framers' notion of enumerated, delegated and thus limited powers will get the state out of our lives and out of our wallets. That's the best way to end the campaign-finance racket, and root out venality without jeopardizing political expression."