CORRUPTION Syndromes of Corruption

64 Syndromes of Corruption
George Washington featured widespread distribution of food and spirits
(Thayer, 1973; Troy,1997), which some saw as vote-buying. The Bank
of the United States helped underwrite Henry Clay’s 1832 presidential
campaign, giving Andrew Jackson an issue he used effectively in winning
re-election (United States, Federal Election Commission, 1995: 1).The
first federal law on political finance, enacted in 1867, protected Navy Yard
workers from demands for contributions (United States, Federal Election
Commission, 1995: 5). Political machines in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries shook down local businesses for funds, and then
engaged in vote-buying and paid ‘‘floaters’’ to vote many times. In the
1896 presidential election financier Mark Hanna and his friends raised an
unprecedented $3.5 million (about $77.5 million in 2005 dollars) on behalf
of William McKinley (United States, Federal Election Commission,
1995: 1; Inflation Calculator, 2005). That led to the first serious proposal
for public funding of federal elections, advanced by Theodore Roosevelt
in 1905. The 1907 Tillman Act barred contributions by corporations
and national banks; in 1910 House campaigns were required by law to
disclose financial information, a requirement extended to the Senate in
1911 (United States, Federal Election Commission, 1995: 1).
After the Harding scandals Congress enacted the Federal Corrupt
Practices Act of 1925, imposing strict spending limits upon House and
Senate campaigns. But they were so low that there was little chance they
would ever be obeyed. Moreover, they applied only to campaign committees
operating in two or more states, with no limit upon the number of
committees a candidate could have. Provisions for disclosure were weak,
and candidates could exempt themselves altogether by claiming they had
no knowledge of expenditures on their behalf. The law did not apply to
primary elections at all – a major drawback where the dominant party’s
nomination was tantamount to election (Johnston, 1982: ch. 6). Despite
its weaknesses, or perhaps because of them – no candidate was ever
prosecuted under its provisions, and no less a political operator than
Lyndon Johnson termed it ‘‘more loophole than law’’ (Lukas, 1976:
186) – the 1925 Act stayed on the books for nearly half a century.
The rules of play
The current federal system of campaign finance in the United States
began to emerge in 1966, when Congress enacted legislation providing
for public funding of presidential general election campaigns through
payments to parties. This law was repealed a year later, but its provision
for a check-off box on federal tax forms inviting individuals to earmark a
portion of their tax to fund campaigns was reinstated by the Revenue Act