Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2020
Abstract
In the spring of 1974, the 31-year-old junior Senator from Delaware, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., published a law review article in which he decried the traditional system of privately financed election campaigns. Private financing, Senator Biden contended, “affords certain wealthy individuals or special interest groups the potential for exerting a disproportionate influence over both the electoral mechanism and the policy-making processes of the government.” Moreover, Biden urged, private funding poses an obstacle to the candidacies of “individuals of moderate means” and so was at odds with the “concept of American democracy [that] presumes that all citizens, regardless of access to wealth, have equal access to the political process.” In addition, he argued that private funding favored incumbents. To address the “Political Darwinism” of private financing, Biden called on Congress to adopt a system of public funding for all federal candidates.
Disciplines
Banking and Finance Law | Election Law | Law
Recommended Citation
Richard Briffault,
A Better Financing System? The Death and Possible Rebirth of the Presidential Nomination Public Financing Program,
The Best Candidate: Presidential Nomination in Polarized Times, Eugene D. Mazo & Michael R. Dimino (Eds.), Cambridge University Press
(2020).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/2590
Comments
This material has been published in "The Best Candidate: Presidential Nomination in Polarized Times" edited by Eugene D. Mazo and Michael R. Dimino. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution or re-use.