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To:  Editor of C-J

From: Donna Walker Mancini

            Chairman, Libertarian Party of Kentucky

Re:  Campaign Finance Reform

As a woman who votes and as a former candidate, I feel I must respond to the letter from the League of Women Voters about campaign finance reform.   Unfortunately, since the writer has not properly identified the problem, she is promoting a solution that would only make matters worse. 

We do not need welfare for politicians, in which taxpayers are forced to subsidize political campaigns.  I recommend the following two steps to provide more competition in political campaigns:

            First, we need ballot access reform that greatly reduces the barriers to third party candidates.  Currently, it is much harder for a third party candidate to get on the ballot than for a candidate from one of the two major parties. 

            Second, we need to get rid of the complex laws that make candidates afraid to run for fear they will get into trouble just for trying to participate in the political process.   When I ran for Congress, I kept my fundraising below $5,000 because of the paperwork that would have been required and the fear of prosecution if I somehow made a mistake.  As a result, it was very difficult for me to run a viable campaign.

When people have more choices, they come out and vote in greater numbers.  We saw that in Jesse Ventura’s campaign for governor of Minnesota, in which many people who had never voted before became involved in the political process.  Also, if the government would stick to the limited functions authorized in the Constitution, it would not have so many favors to sell to special interests, so we would have much less to worry about in terms of corruption.  As a Libertarian, I would like to see equal ballot access, more choices for voters, and a government that is strictly limited in its scope.

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