What’s on the Horizon
By Heather Somers
Sean Treglia
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The principles behind the First Amendment - accountability, ensuring the marketplace of ideas, self-actualization - are the same principles that are at the root of campaign finance laws.
Furthermore, said Sean Treglia, formerly of The Pew Charitable Trust and the current senior policy adviser at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, many of the same reasons political reporting exists - to shine light on issues important to the public and to hold those in power accountable - are the same reasons we have campaign finance laws.
“When you think about campaign finance, you’ve got to think about the First Amendment,” Treglia told a group of journalists attending the Western Knight Center seminar on campaign finance.
“Democratic dialogue produces equitable outcomes,” he said.
These laws were created, he said, to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard, not just the people with large amounts of money.
Treglia said that Americans are suspicious when money enters the political arena, believing it taints the process and hurts the marketplace of ideas. This negative link between money and the political process, he said, reinforces the notion that “when you think about politics and campaign finance, you must think about the First Amendment.”
Treglia took the audience on a brief and colorful tour of the history of campaign finance laws, starting during the Roman Republic when, he said, white chalk was banned because it was feared that politicians would use it to whiten their togas to appear “more godlike.”
Treglia believes America went astray in the early 1990’s when the then existing campaign finance laws were undermined by soft money.
“The system collapsed. The balance of the First Amendment was thrown off,” he said.
He said that the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, otherwise known as McCain-Feingold, is a step on the path toward increased democratic dialogue.
“BCRA is really just an incremental step in a process that started over 100 years ago and the process will continue,” he said.
Treglia challenged the journalists to take a hard look at the process and question whether the reforms are working and fostering the values the public thinks is important.
“The role is for journalists to make sure the balance of the First Amendment remains intact. You must investigate things,” he said.
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