Illiberal Campaigns: Balfour on a Roll

Balfour’s clearly on a roll — quoted here, too, on taxpayer-funded campaigns:

Hoping that doesn’t happen is Brian Balfour, a policy analyst for the John Williams Pope Civitas Institute. Balfour said public financing of political campaigns threatens free expression. He said taxpayer money could be used to fund a campaign for a politician the taxpayer does not support.

Balfour also said that, contrary to its design, the act would not curb the influence of special interest groups on the political process.

"The problem is if you take a look at it, special interests can become more involved" with publicly financed campaigns, he said.

According to Balfour, special interest groups can simply mine their membership rolls to provide the 750 contributions a candidate would need for public financing, causing that candidate to become indebted to the groups.