The McCain-Feingold limit on how much you give a candidate didn't really work because people found ways to get around it.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
It's important not to limit the amount of their own money that candidates can spend, but to give other people access to enough money to run competitive races.
When billionaires can give $50 million, $500 million to a campaign, and there's no limit, then it makes a mockery of 'one man, one vote.'
One of the problems with a candidate like Bob Kennedy, and his brother before him, was that people assumed they didn't need contributions.
As a consequence, the Court ruled that the limits on campaign spending violated the First Amendment, but it accepted the $1,000 limit on individual contributions on the ground that the need to avoid the appearance of corruption justified this limited constraint on speech.
In the 2004 presidential election, we saw a wonderful example of citizens making contributions. In fact, individual giving to both the Kerry and Bush campaigns was the highest in our nation's history.
Much of what candidates have to do is raise money and appeal to constituencies or interest groups that can provide that money.
You never talk about what you want when giving money. I don't pay attention to what other people think... There shouldn't be restrictions of any kind on political contributions.
We tried two moderate Republican candidates, McCain and Romney, and we lost both times.
I contribute to public candidate campaigns, and there's a federal limit on how much you can contribute to each individual candidate. I obey the law in that regard, and I feel like I'm doing it properly.
I don't think anyone's pushing for spending limits in the campaign.