As Theodore Hamm, editor of the Brooklyn Rail, points out, we have a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court case, Buckley v. Valeo, to thank for the fact that Michael Bloomberg can spend unlimited cash to buy a third term in office.The estimable Thurgood Marshall, dissenting from that portion of the Buckley opinion dealing with self-financed campaigns, advocated financing restrictions to reduce the "natural advantage of the wealthy candidate" and promote equal access by all qualified political candidates.
Marshall's words strike Hamm as "quaint" in Post-Reagan America.
The city’s public financing system, which provides matching funds at a ratio of up to 6-1 in mismatched elections like this year's mayoral race, aims to level the playing field, but self-financed political campaigns like Bloomberg's are protected by Buckley as "free speech" under the First Amendment.
Of course Bloomberg's speech isn't free: it's all paid for.
Now that Bloomberg has bought his way around term limits, our last defense against his financial might, and owns the mainstream media, why, wonders Hamm, would he bother beating up on reporters who dare to ask him challenging questions?
Maybe because he's reminded that there is something he can't buy: a free press.
The link.
