Jack Davis’ Millionaire Quandary and twisted logic
According to The Buffalo News, Jack Davis’ court case about The Millionaire’s Amendment is to be heard this Tuesday. What I find perplexing is his lawyer’s argument (bold mine):
Andrew D. Herman, Davis’ lawyer, argues that the amendment — part of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform act of 2002 — unfairly tips the scales in favor of candidates running against self-funded candidates such as his client.
“It should be up to the voters to decide whether they like this guy because he’s independent or they don’t because he’s crazy and squandering his money,†Herman said.
I agree. It should be up to the voters to decide. Nothing about The Millionaire’s Amendment prevents the voters from deciding. In fact, the amendment only allows the voters a chance to vote with their pocketbooks by freeing them up to give more of their money to the candidate they choose. This amendment effectively makes the campaign about voter choice instead of about the candidate with the most money. If Davis is secure in his desire to let the voters decide, then why is he trying to prevent them from being able to donate money to the candidate they choose?
From the article:
The court will decide the constitutionality of requiring millionaires like Davis to quickly report every dime they drop into their campaigns — and allowing those running against such candidates to tap donors for three times as much as permitted for candidates running against non-millionaires.
This is just a way to level the playing field so that money doesn’t trump a fair fight. Nothing is preventing Davis from spending his own money here.
Maybe the money won’t matter that much though. Davis already lost twice, despite spending over $3 million of his own money in 2004 and 2006 combined. His lawyer’s argument sounds like he is afraid of equal competition, preferring to let his money advantage silence competition. That’s not very democratic.
Related posts:
You’re right — it’s not very democratic. But then Jack Davis isn’t very Democratic, either. Remember, this is the guy who told the Genesee County Democrats he wants to go to Washington to fight Pelosi, Hoyer, and Emmanuel. And all the quotes he gave for this article are gripes about what people might contribute to Jon Powers (if he loses this court case), but not a word about any eventual Republican opponent.
Davis is a crazy old man trying to buy a seat. In his declaration speech he claims he isn’t “buying a seat”, well if money isn’t the issue why is it this important? It just shows it’s the only thing he has to run on!
Mick Arran:
Legal analysis of Jack Davis’s case before the Supreme Court.
[...] Grievous Angel covered it here (a while back) [...]