Can Brown & Warren Keep Special-Interest Money Out Of Their Race ?

The above cartoon by Steve Sack from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune pretty much sums up to political situation in the United States today. The Supreme Court's United Citizens vs. FEC decision equated free speech with money and ruled that Congress cannot limit the amount of money outside special interest groups can raise or spend on political ads. This ludicrous reasoning by the court has resulted in the establishment of "super-PACs" which can secretly raise millions of dollars and spend those dollars in an unlimited way to help their favorite candidate.

This involvement of these big-spending outside groups has been particularly egregious in the state of Massachusetts. Groups like Crossroads GPS and the League of Conservation Voters have already spent millions to denigrate the candidates -- Democrat Elizabeth Warren and Republican Scott Brown. The state primary hasn't even been held yet, but both candidates (who are the likely winners of their party's nomination) are tired of the constant attacks by outside groups.

Republican Scott Brown sent his opponent the following message:

"I believe candidates have a responsibility to speak out against these groups regardless of whether those groups are seeking to help them or harm them. It has been disappointing that you have repeated refused to join my call for an end to this spending."

Democrat Warren responded by saying:

"If you are serious about stopping the political games and getting to the hard work of keeping out third party ads and independent groups, I'm ready. My campaign manager is ready to meet with your representative to begin immediately to craft an enforceable agreement."

Both campaigns are to be praised for their willingness to try and get the big outside money out of the campaign. Their campaign managers will soon meet to try and determine what can be done to keep that money out and eliminate the negative ads. The problem is that I really don't see what kind of agreement they could come up with that would be truly "enforceable".

The law already says that these groups' ad spending cannot be connected to the campaign of their favorite candidate. That means the candidates cannot give orders to these groups (because that would demonstrate an illegal connection). They can ask these groups to stop the spending and negative ads, but it is up to each of the groups whether they want to honor that request or not.

This is an important race this year, and could determine the balance in the Senate and which party will control that important body. With that at stake, it is unlikely that the outside groups from either the right or the left will honor any request from the candidates. It is just too important for these groups to have a senator that agrees with their views, and they've already demonstrated their willingness to play dirty to get that.

I commend these candidates for their desire to limit outside money from the campaign, but if they really think that is possible then they are living in a fantasy world.