Clinton vows to fight big money

by Jonathan Swan - 09/08/15 12:01 PM ET

Hillary Clinton wants to get big money out of politics, even after she, like most other 2016 presidential candidates, had spent much of the summer courting wealthy donors.

{mosads}A proposal released by the Clinton campaign on Tuesday declares that Clinton, if elected president, would curb the influence of billionaire donors and “bring sunshine to secret spending.”

Clinton offers the following proposals to reform the campaign finance system:

Overturning Citizens United: The 2010 Supreme Court decision allowed corporations and individuals to spend unlimited money to support political candidates. Clinton vows to overturn Citizens United by appointing Supreme Court justices who agree with her. Clinton also says she favors amending the Constitution “to protect against the undue influence of billionaires and special interests and to restore the role of average voters in elections.”

Reforming disclosure laws: Clinton says there is too much “secret” money being spent influencing elections, and she wants to change disclosure laws to make it easier to discover the identities of donors backing candidates running for elected office. Clinton says she will “push for federal legislation” to ensure more timely disclosure of donors sponsoring outside spending groups such as super-PACs. Clinton also wants the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to require publicly traded companies to disclose all political spending to their shareholders. Lastly, Clinton says she will sign an executive order requiring federal government contractors to fully disclose all political spending.

A government-funded “small donor matching system” for presidential and congressional candidates: To “incentivize” small-dollar donors, Clinton wants to establish a government program offering “multiple matching funds for small donations.” To participate in the program candidates must agree to lower limits on individual donations. The Clinton campaign says it will cap the cost of the donor-matching program by imposing a “reasonable limit” on the total public matching funds available to each candidate.

Campaign finance reformers applauded Clinton’s policies to curb the influence of big money.

“Hillary Clinton recognizes that in order to create a government of, by, and for the people — not just the wealthy campaign funders — it’s crucial to amplify the voices of regular voters,” said David Donnelly, president and CEO of the liberal money-in-politics group Every Voice.

Conservative groups quickly accused Clinton of hypocrisy for calling for campaign finance reform while at the very same time pushing campaign finance laws to their limits.

Under an email titled “hypocrisy alert”, the Republican-aligned opposition research group, America Rising, pointed out that Clinton had endorsed her super-PAC Priorities USA Action and that her campaign was exploiting a loophole in the rules by coordinating directly with the pro-Clinton super-PAC Correct the Record. America Rising also criticized Clinton for supporting public financing of campaigns despite her 2008 presidential campaign being the first to opt out of the public system.

“Proving yet again that she will say or do anything to win an election, Hillary Clinton stopped making calls to her own Super PAC donors long enough to call for an end to Super PACs,” said Jeff Bechdel, communications direction for America Rising PAC.

“Next thing you know, she’s going to call for public financing of campaigns after being the first to opt out of public financing in 2008. Oh wait…” Bechdel added.

Clinton has reportedly met with the super-PAC’s donors, with her campaign saying that while it opposes Citizens United and the big-money politics it ushered in, Democrats were not prepared to “unilaterally disarm,” a Clinton aide told CBS News.

Tags Citizens United Hillary Clinton