Ballot Talks: Two campaign finance controversies

Guests: Lawrence Lessig, Dave Davies

In this week’s edition of Ballot Talks: we get some perspective on the effectiveness and intentions of the Supreme Court ruling Citizens United v. FEC, which five years ago, changed campaign finance forever. The ruling, which equates money with speech, effectively lifted caps on campaign donations, and has since seen an exponential rise in the amount of money donated to candidates for their political campaigns. The debate surrounding Citizens United was given new energy last week upon the announcement that billionaire campaign financiers the Koch Brothers are planning on spending a record-breaking $889 million to promote their favored candidates in the next election cycle. Marty is joined by campaign finance reform advocate and Harvard professor LAWRENCE LESSIG, who will discuss the ways he hopes the current methodologies of raising money for political campaigns can be altered to improve the ways in which candidates are nominated for public office. Then, we’ll be joined by WHYY’s own DAVE DAVIES. Dave and Marty will discuss former State Treasurer, Rob McCord, who recently plead guilty to criminal offenses relating to raising campaign funds for his failed gubernatorial bid.