Left, Right Come Together To Remedy Law
Roy Maynard
It's a rare instance of the left and the right coming together, at least in this very partisan primary season.
Some civil liberties groups and some conservative organizations joined to file a federal lawsuit last week.
The left-leaning American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the right-leaning Free Market Foundation, and the even more right-leaning Texas Eagle Forum Political Action Committee want to overturn a state law that bans organizations from spending money in the election of the Texas House speaker's seat. That law dates back to 1973, but it's an issue now because of the contention surrounding Speaker Tom Craddick's bid to stay in power in the last legislative session.
And the bid of Craddick, a Midland Republican, to keep his position in the 2009 session is the central issue in several House races this year.
"Obviously, the speaker race hasn't been a real issue in a long time," The Free Market Foundation's Kelly Shackelford told the Associated Press last week. "There's a lot of people who would like to speak to this. Whoever the speaker is controls any issue you care about in the House. No matter what side you're on, you care about who the speaker is."
The law says groups can't spend "anything of value" to influence the election of the speaker. Shackelford told the AP the ban is so broad that two people pooling $5 to print fliers to support or oppose a speaker candidate would be breaking the law.
"To anyone with even the slightest interest in the First Amendment, this law is a disgrace," he said. "Since when do legislators have the right to pass a law banning citizens from speaking about what those very legislators are doing? This law is blatantly unconstitutional."
The penalty for a violation is up to one year in jail and a $4,000 fine.
True, the law has apparently never been enforced.
Yes, "this law is an embarrassment to the state of Texas and an affront to the Constitution," said Lisa Graybill, legal director of the Texas ACLU.
Craddick has not commented on the lawsuit, which could be decided before the March 4 primaries.
What's interesting to me about this lawsuit is that it's the same issue that has helped to divorce presidential candidate Sen. John McCain from the Republican Party's conservative base.
"Campaign finance reform" is a simplistic solution to a very complicated problem. And it's an example of setting aside a principle to fix a problem.
The problem seems pretty clear: underdog candidates getting blasted out of the political water by interlopers funded by outside interests, and wealthy candidates buying their offices with their unmatched resources.
The biggest villain in the push for campaign finance reform was "soft money" - spending that ostensibly addressed issues, not candidates, but was usually pretty clear in its intent. Soft money could fund commercials, for example, ripping on a candidate for his or her position on something, but without explicitly saying vote against the candidate.
McCain co-authored the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002, known as McCain-Feingold, to limit soft money and issue ads.
But how real is the problem? Not very, it seems.
State Rep. Tommy Merritt's re-election campaign in 2006 was pretty lopsided; his opponent was funded by a school vouchers proponent, Dr. James Leininger.
After a heated campaign of television ads, big contributions and a defamation lawsuit, five-term incumbent Merritt won handily, despite being out-spent by about $500,000.
More recently, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney just couldn't stay in the GOP race, despite a personal fortune he was more than willing to pour into his campaign.
The problem is overblown. And the solution is pretty drastic.
Shackelford is right; it's a First Amendment issue. That's what brought conservative groups like the Texas Eagle Forum and the Free Market Foundation alongside the Texas ACLU.
The groups recognize that if environmentalists can be silenced, so can pro-lifers.
Silencing people before an election is not the right response. McCain still doesn't get that part of the controversy; until he does, conservatives will have a legitimate disagreement with him.
Early Returns is the political observations column of staff writer Roy Maynard, who can be reached at 903-596-6291 or at roymaynardtmt@gmail.com.
FAQ
Search Forums
Log in
Register
