Lobbying as the New Campaign Finance

Abstract

I want to talk a little bit about the future of campaign finance reform and the future of campaign finance scholarship in the wake of Citizens United. Here I am going to draw upon my own work and the work of some of the folks in this room, including Richard Briffault and Rick Hasen, so please imagine a properly footnoted law review article scrolling behind me. I want to make three points. First, I will argue that Citizens United has cut off most of the traditional pathways for campaign finance reform. Second, I want to talk about the new directions in which this development will push us; I will talk very briefly about future reform proposals in the campaign finance context, some of which we have already talked about today. Finally, I will talk about where I think campaign finance should go. Here I'll argue that, just as brown is the new black, lobbying is the new campaign finance. I want to talk a little bit about why I think these two areas are going to be tied closely together in practice and in theory. I'll even kick in new a policy proposal at the end by way of a party favor: a public finance analog for lobbying reform.