In the October issue of The Atlantic, editor James Bennett takes a long look at campaign finance reforms and their impact on our democracy through the competing visions of Legal Center President Trevor Potter and anti-reformer James Bopp. “The New Price of American Democracy” traces the history of campaign finance reforms, the scandals that led to them, and the courts’ reactions to those reforms.
The piece looks at the motivations behind Potter and Bopp’s entry into the field of campaign finance law and their respective careers. Ultimately the piece examines each of the attorneys’ predictions and hopes for the future of how campaigns are financed and just how much will be revealed about who or what is bankrolling them. It further benefits from the author’s own experiences as a former White House reporter for The New York Times during the scandal-plagued Clinton Administration and as the brother of a sitting U.S. Senator whose 2010 race for office saw tens of millions of dollars of spending by outside groups from both sides of the political aisle.
To read the full story online at The Atlantic, click here.
To view excerpts of one of the author’s interviews with Trevor Potter, click here.