From The Peoria Star-Journal:

Wood’s campaign finance reform proposal has merit

December 13, 2001

Almost as soon as gubernatorial candidate Corinne Wood suggested restricting the way Illinois politicians raise campaign money, opponents of reform went on the offensive. She’s a millionaire who’d get an unfair advantage if other candidates were limited in their ability to get and spend, they grumbled. She should do as she preaches.

The attacks are a familiar tactic of those fighting any campaign financing reform in Illinois: go after the messenger and hope the message gets buried. This time it shouldn’t.

Illinois desperately needs to change the way it finances political campaigns. The current system consolidates power in the hands of a few legislative leaders who control treasure chests stuffed with election booty. It gives unfair advantage to companies and individuals willing to make big contributions. It undermines people’s confidence in lawmakers’ commitment to the interests of Mr. or Ms. Average. An academic study earlier this year found a direct correlation between campaign contributions and legislative action or inaction. Good-government groups have called Illinois the most wide-open state in the nation.

Wood proposes to limit how much can be contributed to candidates or political committees, prohibit carrying over cash from one election cycle to the next, and sharply restrict how much money legislative leaders can transfer to candidates who please them.

Limiting contributions and prohibiting carry-overs should reduce the cost of seeking office and the power of money to buy influence. But restricting the ability of legislative leaders to fund candidates may be the most important reform. These days, legislative candidates routinely get the majority of their money not from individual supporters but from their party’s legislative leaders. The money buys their allegiance and diminishes their independence. The result: too much control resting in too few hands.

Admittedly, capping donations would give an advantage to wealthy candidates, like Wood, who are willing to spend their fortunes. The U.S. Supreme Court says they can’t be stopped from doing so.

If the other gubernatorial candidates don’t think that Illinois needs campaign financing reform, they should argue their case. That’s a more constructive approach than a personal attack.