Corporate Influence in Texas Election Finance

It has been almost 100 years since the state of Texas banned campaign finance by corporation. Now the trend has changed as the district court has upheld the law. According to the newly passed law, corporate can spend as much as they want on advertising. It also says that corporate can spend that much money as long as they are careful not to expressly advocate the election or defeat of a particular candidate. Corporations do not have to report or disclose their spending to Texas Ethics of Commission. However, the court has assured that the new law does not violate the already established State Campaign Finance Law. Even before the law was passed, corporate finance was never been completely stopped.

When Tom Delay, a former US House Majority Leader successfully elects more Republicans to the US house, he also had to elect a Republican Majority in Texas house to withdraw the congressional district in favor of GOP candidate. At that time, lobbyists for GOP were accused of providing corporate finance. They were being fined for the breach. After the law is enacted, the Texas Association of Business cases have held that corporations and unions have free speech rights that allow them to spend money on campaigns.

Finally, giving so much of right to corporate in campaign finance is not in favor of general public. I believe, public also do not like the idea that corporate should involve so much in election. Even if the campaign financer do not talk about getting benefit or disclose any commitment, their finance definitely put more pressure on house of representative to finish corporate task, rather than public need. By involving corporate, Legislature which was already dominated by business interests will be even more business interest dominant. I think, the election should be fair enough. General public should be enough for campaign finance. If not the politics will be all about money. Whoever can afford to he or she can only run for the any level of election. The law should completely avoid this dirty game of politics.

Please refer Statesman.com to know about this issue.