In 2012, presidential candidates are expected raise and spend approximately eight billion dollars in campaign contributions, an increase of 20 percent from the 2008 election.President Barack Obama alone is expected to raise about one billion dollars for his campaign, and don’t expect that money to come from teaching unions or the ACLU; despite Obama’s promise of liberal change, his 2008 campaign accepted more money from the financial sector than anyone in history.
Campaign finance is a serious problem. Serious reforms, especially toward industries like banking, health care and energy, are drowned in a whirlpool of lobbying money, and most elected officials have to spend more of their daytime raising money than governing. Despite this problem, only one 2012 candidate has made any serious commentary on the collusion of special interests and politicians, and you’ve probably never heard of him.
Former Lousiana Gov. Buddy Roemer hasn’t gotten any serious media attention during his candidacy. His poll numbers are infinitesimal, he’s been blocked from every debate and aside from a few cable-TV appearances, he’s barely earned any exposure. But there’s a reason Roemer’s candidacy has been so inconsequential: Roemer has only accepted personal donations of no more than $100 per person to fund his campaign, and has rejected all PAC money. In the entire duration of his campaign, Roemer has only raised $1.2 million, a fraction of Mitt Romney and Rick Perry’s third quarter totals of $14 million and $17 million respectively.
Roemer’s reasons for rejecting lucrative donations are well-stated—he has focused his entire campaign on the platform of radically reforming campaign finance. On Roemer’s website he calls for the elimination of Super PACs, mandatory full disclosure of campaign contributions and banning lobbyists from attending fundraisers. He writes extensively about the injustice of the Citizens United Supreme Court case, which decided that corporations could make unlimited political donations as a form of free speech. While Roemer doesn’t overtly call for the revocation of Citizens United, he all but suggests doing so through severe campaign finance reforms.
While these measures will never be enacted by any elected official in our lifetime, the fact that Roemer is at least talking about this stuff earns him serious credibility. Campaign finance is not an issue, it’s the issue. Every time a law is passed to strengthen one of the country’s major industries, it’s usually because a corporation paid a politician to do it. If current laws can be repealed, and fair, public financing can be emphasized, many issues—especially progressive and liberal causes—have a much greater chance of passage.
Usually progressives and liberals are the ones advocating for campaign finance reform. But Roemer is a small government conservative, vehemently opposed to cronyism and has even endorsed and joined in the Occupy Wall Street protests.
Roemer also frequently tweets messages supporting the Occupy movement and recently spoke out against Mayor Mike Bloomberg for ordering police to sweep out protesters. The former governor’s solidarity with Occupy Wall Street is logical and extremely significant. In doing so Roemer demonstrates that corruption and wealth inequality are not just partisan issues but moral ones. While Obama continues to merely gesture toward Occupy Wall Street rather than unequivocally support it, Roemer has lent a definitive voice of endorsement towards a movement in need of leadership.
There are, however, a lot of problems to be had with Buddy Roemer. His website is extremely vague and deceptive about his positions on many issues. Additionally, he wants to eliminate several important federal departments and programs. And if you wanted to be cynical, one could speculate Roemer’s only reason for devoting his entire campaign to this issue is to gain needed exposure for a quiet campaign.
But I choose to believe his convictions. Laugh at Roemer if you wish, but on the important issue of campaign finance reform, he is the most substantively fulfilling candidate there is.
Ryan Waal is a sophomore majoring in English. Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
