Half of Americans Support Publicly Funded Political Campaigns
You know who needs a hefty government subsidy? Political campaign consultants. Americans agree, according to the latest Gallup poll. Politico explains:
According to a Gallup poll posted on Monday, 50 percent of Americans say they would support a law banning campaign contributions from individuals and groups, which would instead have government fund federal campaigns; 44 percent said they would oppose such an initiative. Americans also overwhelmingly support limiting congressional campaign contributions, the poll found: Seventy-nine percent said they would support such limits; 19 percent said they would not.
Polls like this come around every now and then, and beyond attempting to explain why such systems benefit entrenched incumbents and extremely wealthy candidates and would cause the cost of federal elections to skyrocket, not come down, I always wonder how the answers might be different if those polled were told all this money would essentially be subsidizing consultants, polling firms, and major media outlets?
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