Restraining Arizona: fixing 'clean' elections.

• Author: Sullum, Jacob
• Position: Citings - Brief article

CAMPAIGN finance reformers see expanded public funding of candidates as an antidote to Citizens United v. FEC. the January decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court overturned restrictions on political speech by corporations. But their plans could be stymied by a case that reached a crucial juncture the day before that decision was announced.

In a ruling that was barely noticed at the time, U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver concluded that Arizona's "clean elections" system, which subsidizes participating candidates so they can match the spending of their privately financed opponents, imposes a "substantial burden" on freedom of speech. By giving a dollar to each opponent of a privately funded candidate for every dollar he spends above a predetermined threshold, Silver ruled, the system in effect punishes the privately funded...