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187 10 Campaign Finance in Kentucky Escalating Costs and the Search for Reform Donald A. Gross For almost half a century campaign finance reform has seemed to remain an issue that simply will not go away. In the 1960s the Kennedy administration began an examination of ways to deal with the escalation of media costs in federal elections, and in 1974 and 1976 the U.S. Congress passed the most comprehensive campaign finance reform laws in the nation’s history. More federal legislation followed, as did efforts by the states to reform their campaign finance laws. In many ways Kentucky has often been at the center of the debate over the merits of campaign finance regulation. Kentucky has adopted one of the more stringent sets of regulations on campaign contributions seen in the country and in 1992 passed one of the more innovative systems of financing gubernatorial elections. At the same time, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky remains one of the most powerful and vocal congressional opponents of reform laws. McConnell has helped stop or at least delay numerous campaign finance reform laws and has joined in court actions to challenge federal campaign finance reform laws. In fact, he is fond of saying that no one has ever been defeated for working against campaign finance reform. David Williams, former president of the Kentucky Senate and a friend of McConnell, led the effort to eliminate Kentucky’s system of public financing in gubernatorial elections. Perhaps it is not surprising that debate over campaign finance reform remains so contentious and unending. It is fundamentally linked to some of our most important principles and concerns: free speech, equality, power and influence, the role of money in our society, the integrity of our elections, and our democracy. In this chapter I begin with an examination of the costs of elections in Kentucky.1 As is the case throughout the United States, it will be seen that campaign costs continue to escalate almost every election cycle. Particular attention will be paid to the elections of 1995 and 1999, when Kentucky experimented with public funding for gubernatorial elections. I then move to a consideration of the regulatory environment in Kentucky and examine how it compares with that seen in other states. Finally, I 188 Politics and Public Policy Issues briefly consider how the nature of the debate over campaign finance will likely proceed in the immediate future. Election Campaign Costs in Kentucky My examination of election campaign costs in Kentucky begins with a consideration of federal elections in Kentucky. State election campaign costs are then considered. Campaign costs in state legislation elections are explored followed by examination of gubernatorial campaign costs. Federal Elections It is well documented that elections in the United States at almost all levels have, on average, become more costly over recent years.2 In fact, this trend has been going on in congressional elections for over fifty years. But even though election costs have risen on average, it is not necessarily the case that any subset of elections will have increased cost. Table 10.1 shows the average cost of U.S. House elections in Kentucky from 1996 to 2010.3 It also shows the mean cost of all U.S. House elections nationwide, the cost of Kentucky U.S. Senate races, and the mean cost of all U.S. Senate elections. Column 3 in table 10.1 indicates that with the exception of 1998, the average cost of all U.S. House races has risen in every electoral period from 1996 to 2010. The average cost was $971,637 in 1996 but rose to $1,970,977 in 2010, an increase of over 100 percent. One sees a similar trend in column 5. The average cost of all U.S. Senate races has increased every electoral cycle, reaching an average of over $20 million in 2010, an increase of over 190 percent since 1996.4 The information on Kentucky federal elections portrayed in table 10.1 suggests two interesting contrasts. First, the information in column 2 indicates that there is not a clear monotonic trend toward increasingly expensive U.S. House elections in KenTable 10.1. Mean Cost of Federal Elections, Nationwide and in Kentucky, 1996–2010 Year House mean in Kentucky U.S. House mean Kentucky Senate U.S. Senate mean 1996 $1,106,913 $971,637 $6,743,436 $6,982,424 1998 $1,267,404 $913,154 $7,502,230 $7,328,958 2000 $2,024,231 $1...

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