Preface ix Chapter 1: Introduction 3 PART I: THE COST OF CAMPAIGNS AND THE PRICE OF REFORM Chapter 2: Money Talks: A Short History of Campaign Spending, Regulation, and Reform 17 Chapter 3: Faulty Assumptions of Campaign Finance Reform 39 Chapter 4: The Folly of Reform: Consequences of Campaign Finance Regulation 65 Chapter 5: Some Problems with the Solution of Government Financing 88 PART II: CONSTITUTIONAL MATTERS Chapter 6: Money and Speech 109 Chapter 7: Money and Corruption 122 Chapter 8: Money and Equality 137 PART III: REAL AND IMAGINED REFORM OF CAMPAIGN FINANCE Chapter 9: Unfree Speech: The Future of Regulatory "Reform" 169 Chapter 10: Real Equality, Real Corruption, Real Reform 201 Notes 229 Bibliography 259 Index 279
A wonderful, timely, and accessible book about one of the most pressing public questions of our time: the issue of campaign finance reform. Bedeviling our nation's political community for more than twenty-five years, the dispute over how best to regulate political campaign funding--and hence political campaign speech--has pitted free speech advocates against good government reformers, Democrats against Republicans, and courts against legislatures. Bradley Smith's highly readable book navigates all of these crosscurrents in a balanced way that informs the reader of the basic elements of the debates, while deftly skewering the key components of the conventional wisdom by arguing for the elimination of laws limiting campaign funding. -- Joel Gora, Brooklyn Law School To date no one has written a sustained, book-length argument for the deregulation of campaign financing. Bradley Smith's Unfree Speech is a welcome step in filling that gap. He addresses numerous important themes, including the inroads on freedom of speech caused by campaign finance regulation, the tendency of reformers to exaggerate the harms of campaign finance and to seek increasing restrictions on speech, and the tendency for the burden of regulation to fall most heavily on everyday citizens. -- Daniel Lowenstein, UCLA
Bradley A. Smith is Professor of Law at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio. As of May 2000, he has been serving a six-year-term on the Federal Election Commission.
Surely will be this year's most important book on governance. -- George Will Washington Post A sustained defense of free speech against those who would burden it with rules that run counter to the intentions of the founders ... A stirring defense of First Amendment against the depredations of the reformers. -- Ira Stoll Wall Street Journal A much needed does of realism which has relevance far beyond America. He challenges the prevailing assumption that political problems may usually be remedied by ever larger doses of public subsidy and rules... Even those who disagree with Bradley Smith's political stance will do well to remember his powerful arguments that the legislative cures for the ills of campaign and party financing are sometimes worse that the disease. -- Michael Pinto-Duschinsky Times Literary Supplement A must-read for anyone wanting to make sense of the campaign-finance debate. -- Kathryn Jean-Lopez National Review Enlightening and entertaining ... To say the least, there are many who will disagree with Smith's findings and conclusions. But this is a marvelous contrarian view: moderate in tone, elegant in language, clever in argument. Publishers Weekly Smith is ultimately a First Amendment absolutist, urging that any limitation on campaign contributions restricts free speech. Both opponents and supporters of McCain-Feingold should spend some time with this thoughtful study. Booklist A timely read ... One by one, [Smith] dismantles the girders on which campaign-finanace reform now stands. The Washington Times Smith's presence on the FEC drives advocates of campaign finance reform to distraction and Unfree Speech makes quite clear why... For Smith, it is vital to keep in mind what is at stake, which is freedom of speech itself. The constitutional issues cannot be swept aside. -- Daniel J. Silver The Weekly Standard Mr. Smith is a member of the Federal Election Commission, an agency created for the sole purpose of enforcing the Federal Election Campaign Act. Mr. Smith believes not only that the act doesn't work, but that it also undermines democracy. Moreover, he's convinced that virtually all attempts to regulate campaign finances are bad for society... Mr. Smith's fundamental argument, though, is that there is no way to limit the expenditure of money on politics without violating the free speech rights of those who want to spend it. -- Gerald F. Seib The Wall Street Journal Unfree Speech is an important and valuable contribution to the money and politics literature... [A] well-argued and well-presented counterreformist argument. -- David C. W. Parker Congress and the Presidency
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