Understanding money in politics

With the 2024 federal election projected to cost a record $15.9 billion, concerns about campaign finance and calls for reform are growing.

It’s predicted the 2024 federal election will be the most expensive election ever recorded, according to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization tracking money in politics and its effects on elections and policy.

On Oct. 28, students gathered in Neville Hall for an event hosted by Lehigh’s Student Political Action Committee and American Promise, where Matthew Powell, the Pennsylvania state manager of American Promise, discussed and advocated for the “For Our Freedom” Amendment.

American Promise is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that advocates for setting limits on campaign spending in U.S. elections. 

The amendment seeks to give state and federal governments the authority to regulate campaign finance in their elections.

“The reason why I got involved with (American Promise) is to help those people who are running for office and don’t have big donors,” Powell said. 

Powell said the organization is pushing for the passage of an amendment relating to campaign finance reform. 

Tommy Parisi, ‘28, a SPAC representative, helped organize the event and presented statistics and graphics to illustrate the growing influx of money into politics over the last two decades.

“The event tonight was mainly to educate people about money in politics and ask the question, ‘Why is it a problem?’” Parisi said. 

Powell said the amendment would overrule the Supreme Court decisions relating to this topic. Specifically, in the 1976 case, Buckley v. Valeo, the court equated money with First Amendment speech, according to the Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center. 

While the ruling allows the government to limit individual contributions to political campaigns, it can’t restrict campaign expenditures, including those from a candidate’s personal funds or independent spending by supporting groups.

Also, in the 2010 Supreme Court case, Citizens United v. FEC, the court ruled that corporate spending on elections is protected as free speech after the Federal Election Commission blocked the conservative nonprofit from promoting a film criticizing presidential candidate Hillary Clinton too close to the presidential primaries, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

“The path to a constitution amendment is a steep one, but it’s possible and has been done 27 times before,” Powell said.

Many recent amendments have failed because they haven’t recieved enough support from the states within the deadline allotted, he said. For example, the Equal Rights Amendment passed through both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate but failed to get approval from 38 states, which was required to ratify in time. 

To address these challenges, Powell said American Promise is taking what they call a “backward” approach to securing the passage and ratification of their amendment.

Instead of starting in Congress, he said the organization is starting at the state level to gather the necessary support to pass the amendment federally.

“We are hoping by 2026, that we can have enough states on board where we can get it ratified quickly,” Powell said. 

The organization has a 50-state plan to pass and ratify the amendment, and 22 states have called on Congress to propose the amendment.

He said he hopes Pennsylvania will become the 23rd state to enter this pledge. 

He said this is something he believes is within reach, as a new poll conducted by American Promise found that 81% of Pennsylvania along with 76% of Americans support the For Our Freedom Amendment.

Chase Bartolini, ‘28, a Pennsylvania resident, attended the event to fulfill his 5×10 requirement and said it taught him about campaign finance reform efforts for the first time.

“As someone from Pennsylvania, I can’t do anything without seeing constant political ads, I can’t watch a YouTube video without it,” Bartolini said, “it was interesting to see where all of this money was coming from.”