CSM: Campaign finance in age of DeLay

[leftchick]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1005/p02s01-uspo.html



WASHINGTON – If nothing else, the recent indictments of Rep. Tom DeLay (R) of Texas offer a window into the difficulties of limiting the flow of money into politics.
Looked at from one point of view, the DeLay case shows how complicated campaign-finance law has become, and how easy it may be to commit violations.

From another, it may illustrate how easy it might be to circumvent current restrictions - and push fundraising tactics to the edge of legality.

"You're never going to stop it all," says Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign finance watchdog group. "It's a question of keeping it under some control."

For Representative DeLay, the first legal blow landed last week, when a grand jury empaneled by Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle indicted him on criminal conspiracy charges.