Americans Overwhelmingly Favor Campaign Finance Reform

A huge majority of Americans believe that the nation needs major, even drastic, reform of its campaign finance system, a new poll discloses.

In the New York Times/CBS News survey, 39 percent of respondents said the system for funding political campaigns requires major changes, 13 percent said it needs minor changes — and 46 percent believe the system needs to be “completely rebuilt.”

A solid 84 percent said money has too much influence in political campaigns, including 90 percent of Democrats and 80 percent of Republicans, while 10 percent said its influence is “about right” and just 5 percent said it plays too little of a role.

Three-quarters of those polled said groups not affiliated with a candidate that spend money during political campaigns should be required to publicly disclose their contributors.

About the same percentage believe spending by those groups should be limited by law, and agree that spending by individuals should also be limited.

The Supreme Court’s ruling five years ago in the Citizens United case was largely based on the argument that political money is a form of speech protected by the First Amendment.

But in the Times/CBS poll, 54 percent of respondents, including 53 percent of Democrats, 49 percent of Republicans, and 55 percent of independents, said they do not consider money given to political candidates to be a form of free speech.

A majority of respondents, 55 percent, believe that candidates who win office promote policies that directly help the people and organizations who donated money to their campaigns “most of the time,” and another 30 percent said “sometimes.”

A majority of respondents, 55 percent, believe that candidates who win office promote policies that directly help the people and organizations who donated money to their campaigns “most of the time,” and another 30 percent said “sometimes.”

But despite the overwhelming support for campaign finance reform, just 39 percent of those polled are optimistic that reform will actually be implemented, and 58 percent are pessimistic.

“People with billions of dollars have a lot of influence with candidates that they help get elected,” one poll respondent told the Times. “You can see the dollar signs on the wall.”

The poll is not the first to express what amounts to opposition to the Citizens United ruling. An ABC/Washington Post survey conducted shortly after the high court’s January 2010 decision showed that 80 percent of respondents opposed the ruling, including 65 percent who strongly opposed it.

And 72 percent supported an effort by Congress to reinstate limits on corporate and union spending on election campaigns, with a large majority of both Democrats and Republicans favoring it.

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