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1973

The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, probes President Richard Nixon’s 1972 reelection effort and finds numerous violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, the same law that Nixon had predicted would “restore public confidence in the electoral process.” Several months later, Common Cause wins a federal lawsuit against the Nixon campaign, compelling it to disclose the mountain of secret cash contributions that Nixon’s men pressured wealthy donors into giving before the law took effect in April 1972. As revelations about Nixon’s sleazy fundraising and even sleazier spending of his $60 million treasury emerge via court proceedings and congressional hearings, there’s growing public pressure on Congress to enact even stronger reforms. In July, the Senate votes to limit the spending of all presidential candidates to a total of $35 million, and to restrict individual donors to giving no more than $25,000 to all candidates and causes in an election year. Republican Senator Marlow W. Cook of Kentucky objects that “if we get a few more amendments, no one is going to run next year without going to jail.” But those measures stall in the House.

A Gallup poll in September shows that 65 percent of Americans favor an even more drastic reform: public financing of elections. Reformers argue that it’s the best way to eliminate politicians’ perpetual indebtedness to wealthy donors, corporate lobbyists, and labor unions, a system that Democratic Senator Walter Mondale of Minnesota calls “government of, for, and by those who are willing and able to pay the price.” In November, the Senate, by a 57-34 vote, passes legislation that would provide federal funding for general elections, including both congressional and presidential races. Candidates for president would be required to raise their own funds for the primaries, but once nominated by their parties, they would be allotted $21 million in public money. Two senators, Democrat Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Republican Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania, negotiate a compromise with House leaders, in which public funding would be provided for presidential candidates only. But an opponent, Democratic Senator James Allen of Alabama, leads a successful filibuster. He gets some help from the Nixon White House, which sends Air Force One to Oklahoma to pick up two Republican senators so they can get back to Capitol Hill to vote against cloture.