Whither Public Campaign Finance?

Linton Weeks has an interesting piece focusing on how the campaign finance system has been turned on its head this election cycle — and what that may mean for future elections. No doubt: When the elections have some distance and we are able to study what actually happened, fundraising and campaign finance will have been an important part of the 2008 election narrative.

Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) fundraising has been nothing short of astounding. The September take alone — $153 million raised, 632,000 new donors and an average donation of $86 — is unheard of. Fundraising from small donors and over the Internet have been revolutionized, just as conservatives made direct-mail innovations in the 1980s.

The Obama phenomenon has been so unique (in part because, for many, Obama is more of a cause than a candidate), the Obama campaign may not have killed public campaign finance, but it has pointed the way for future candidates to break free of the traditional campaign finance model.

As Weeks notes in his article, “Irony alert: The Republican standard-bearer is using federal grants, while the Democrat extols the free-market virtues of individual campaign donations.” What’s of further irony is that it is Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the co-author of the McCain/Feingold campaign reform law, who is now having the campaign finance system used against him.