Campaign finance

Re “Bill banning use of campaign funds for personal expenses in Virginia dies in GOP-led House panel” (Feb. 1): Feb. 1 was a terrible, horrible, very bad day for good governance in Virginia. The article noted the demise of a bill restricting personal use of campaign donations. It is also noteworthy that other bills proposing sensible reforms to Virginia’s lax campaign finance system were voted down. These included bills proposing reasonable limits on campaign donations, banning money from foreign-influenced corporations, and forcing disclosure by obscure entities that flood our airways with negative ads before our elections.

In Virginia, money rules, and citizens, well, drool. Candidates wrack up millions of dollars in donations for positions that pay less than $20,000 per year. Dark money ads influence public policy, and citizens are left in the dark as to who is paying for them. Virginia is a statistical anomaly in terms of good governance and ranks 46 out of 51 jurisdictions in the Coalition for Integrity’s States With Anti-Corruption Measures for Public Officials index based on lack of transparency and accountability to voters. Yet, statewide polling shows that nearly 4 out of 5 Virginians feel we need to reduce the influence of wealthy special interests, and 87% of business owners perceive our campaign finance systems as broken.

Virginians no longer believe that those in government work for them. Killing good bills depicts legislators as serving wealthy elites who finance their political careers. We have an important election coming up. Let’s ask every candidate running for office to support transparency and accountability to us, the voters.

— Nancy Morgan, coordinator of BigMoneyOutVA, Alexandria