Buried in today's news of primary results was this gem from Justice Kennedy
The Supreme Court on Tuesday barred officials in Arizona from providing matching funds to candidates for state office who accept public financing, a program meant to help them keep pace with the unlimited spending of candidates who do not take public financing.
Campaign finance specialists said the Supreme Court's move would have major consequences for elections this year in Arizona, where many candidates participate in the public financing system. Under a 1998 state law, candidates who agree to restrictions on private fund-raising are provided with a fixed base amount of public financing as well as matching funds based on spending by candidates not participating in the program.
...
The Supreme Court's stay will probably remain in effect through the state's primary elections in August and the general election in November.
The court instructed the candidates challenging the matching fund law to file a prompt appeal. If the court agrees to hear the case, as is likely, it is unlikely to be argued and decided before November. ...
Brought to us by the Justice who supported the Supreme Court's appointment of George W Bush to the US presidency in 2000 and permissions of corporate funding of political campaigns in 2009, this order effectively bars any public funding for candidates in states where this practice has been the norm for more than a decade.
Regardless of how this is decided in the full court (and I can not imagine a pro-people funding decision by the current men who make up the majority), it effectively moots Clean Campaigns Colorado's effort for reform.
We are going to have to hang together this year and in 2012 if we expect to see an America which had been a shining city upon a hill not become the right-wing fascist state for which 20-30% hunger. |
