All this debate about the abuses of campaign financing is a waste of time. The solution to the problem is simple and a basic tenet of all legal statutes: Conflict of interest is illegal for all civil servants!
If a judge has a clear or potential conflict of interest in a case, he must excuse (recuse) himself or suffer penalties, even disbarment. If a zoning board member accepts money for his vote, he will be fired, possibly jailed. We need to apply the same law to politicians.
For example, make it illegal for any sitting member of Congress to accept contributions from any industry or individual if he plans to vote on legislation affecting them or has already voted on related bills during his term. For a second violation he is removed from office and stripped of his pension. The briber/contributor is fined 50 percent of the dollar benefit received from the illegal vote and is barred from all federal contracts for five years. As for politicians running for office, they must excuse themselves from all votes that could affect any of their contributors.
Such a conflict-of-interest law would put an immediate end to vote buying and prevent the special little, fine-print “add-ons” to bills that allow congressmen to reward contributors without the public knowing. It’s time that we take America back from the special interests, and this is a practical, logical and constitutional way to do it.
