Editorial: Record fundraising should prompt reform of campaign finance system

The recently completed election cycle was not only the most expensive legislative campaign in Virginia’s history, but the third-most costly legislative election cycle in American history. The two major political parties, candidates and their affiliated groups raised nearly $175 million in an effort to secure majorities in the General Assembly, according to campaign finance watchdog Follow the Money.

As the birthplace of American democracy, Virginia should demonstrate its leadership by reforming campaign finance rules to address the amount of cash pouring into our elections. Reducing the influence of monied interests will put the spotlight on candidates and the voters, where it belongs.

Commonwealth voters faced tough choices when they filed into their polling stations earlier this month to select all 140 members of the General Assembly. They had for weeks been bombarded by television ads and had their mailboxes stuffed with campaign flyers, all seeking to persuade Virginians that their policy agenda was the superior choice.

Conducting those campaigns came at a staggering cost. According to the Virginia Public Access Project, an invaluable resource for information about officials, candidates and elections, Democrats raised about $110 million for their House and Senate candidates during this election cycle, while Republicans raised about $79 million for their side.

Compare that to 2011, when the two parties combined to raise about $75 million in a similar election cycle with all 140 legislative seats on the ballot. Consider also that Virginia’s off-year elections mean this is a proving ground for campaign consultants and party fundraisers seeking a jump on tactics for next year’s federal elections.

Many of the largest donors during this election cycle weren’t individuals but political action committees and corporations seeking a favorable make-up of the General Assembly. The top donors of this cycle were Clean Virginia (largely funded by founder and millionaire Michael Bills), Dominion Energy and Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s Spirit of Virginia PAC.

Reform advocates such as BigMoneyOutVA argue that the outsized influence of these groups diminishes the voice and power of everyday Virginians, who see candidates courting corporate boardrooms and deep-pocketed donors at their expense. Polling by the Wason Center at Christopher Newport University found that voters overwhelmingly want to see that reversed — for the commonwealth to set limits for campaign fundraising, bolster disclosure requirements and create a system of public financing to ensure elections are decided by the power of ideas rather than the size of one’s war chest.

Virginia’s campaign laws have long emphasized disclosure rather than set fundraising limits, believing that transparency in who donates would be sufficient for the public. But that has done little to curb the flow of cash and done nothing to curb the influence of companies, such as Dominion, that spend freely without further scrutiny.

The trouble is that changing those laws depends on the actions of lawmakers, who aren’t eager to reform a system that landed them in office. The General Assembly has, in recent years, rejected proposals to set campaign contributions limits, prohibit public utilities (such as Dominion) from making donations and enact a system of public financing.

But both Republicans and Democrats bristled at the huge sums raised for this campaign and decried how that money was spent on advertising they considered false or misleading. Voters feel the same, as polling has shown. And the off-year cycle means more money from out-of-state donors, who won’t have to live with election’s consequences.

Nearly 30 years ago, a commission convened by Gov. Douglas Wilder concluded that “Virginia has a ‘heritage of clean government’ which warrants safeguarding” through substantial reform of the commonwealth’s campaign finance laws. And for 30 years, those proposals have failed to gain traction in Richmond.

Let this be the year that changes and lawmakers give serious consideration to changing how elections are conducted here. Virginia’s campaign finance laws increasingly diminish the public’s influence and it’s time the commonwealth returned that power to the people, where it belongs.