David Obey: “I think it is incredibly sad that the original intention of the reforms back in the midseventies have now been so…”

“I think it is incredibly sad that the original intention of the reforms back in the midseventies have now been so subverted by both misguided Supreme Court decisions and clever lawyering on the part of people who want to influence politics. The Supreme Court a long time ago passed a one man-one vote decision. One of the reasons that Congress passed campaign finance reform legislation in the seventies was because we wanted to see to it that the one man-one vote philosophy was adhered to, and that the man who had the money would not, in fact, be able to overwhelm the voice of the man who did not have the money, whether it be a candidate or an average citizen. That is, I think, going to have to be at the core of any changes that we make. When we passed that bill a long time ago, we thought that what we were doing was passing legislation which would limit to $1,000, period, what any individual could give, whether he was a man of moderate means or a millionaire.”