Governor Mitt Romney is calling for the repeal of McCain-Feingold.
In fact, prior to the passage of McCain-Feingold, liberal Governor Mitt Romney supported even more stringent restrictions on political speech than M-F accomplished. He wanted to ban PACs, limit campaign spending, and even TAX POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS.
Romney's about-face on campaign funding
By Alexander Bolton
February 08, 2007
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who strongly criticized campaign-finance regulations in a private meeting with House conservatives last week, once touted dramatic restructuring measures such as taxing political contributions and placing spending limits on federal campaigns.
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A review of Romney’s public statements from his 1994 senatorial and 2002 gubernatorial campaigns reveal that he once touted stringent campaign-finance modifications.
A Boston Globe article from July 1994 reported that Romney publicly advocated placing spending limits on congressional campaigns and abolishing political action committees (PACs).
McCain and his allies on campaign finance included similar proposals in the first campaign-finance reform package they introduced in Congress in 1995, said Meredith McGehee, policy director of the Campaign Legal Center, who was at the center of the fight to pass the changes. McCain and his allies later dropped the spending limits and PAC ban because they proved to be too controversial, she said.
During remarks before the Burlington (Mass.) Business Roundtable in 1994, Romney spoke like the committed reformers who later enacted sweeping national reforms in Congress.
“I understand Ted Kennedy will spend about $10 million to be reelected — he’s been in 32 years, $10 million. I think that’s wrong because — and that’s not his own money, that’s all from other people,” Romney said during the 1994 presentation, which was aired by C-SPAN. “And to get that kind of money you’ve got to cozy up as an incumbent to all the special-interest groups who can go out and raise money for you from their members. And that kind of relationship has an influence on the way you’re gonna vote.”
Romney lost his race against Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.). When he ran for governor eight years later, Romney again proposed dramatic changes to campaign-finance rules.
The Quincy Patriot Ledger and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported in the fall of 2002 that Romney proposed taxing political contributions to finance publicly funded campaigns.
“Mr. Romney campaigned in favor of clean elections, which provides public money to candidates for state office who meet strict fundraising requirements,” the Telegram & Gazette reported. “But he suggested an alternative funding method. Instead of providing campaign funds from state coffers, his plan would tap 10 percent of the fundraising of candidates who choose to raise money privately.”
Kevin Madden, Romney’s campaign spokesman, declined to comment about campaign finance proposals his boss made in 1994 and 2002.
Mitt Romney in his own words: His passionate support for CFR - His current hypocrisy on display
The disadvantage that Romney has, one that I don’t think he can overcome with me, is that he MAY have actually experienced some sort of conservative conversion but he’s got little, beyond his own word, to prove it. If he had an actual record demonstrating his new conservative stance and how it effects his governance, that would be enough to convince most people. But he doesn’t. His conversion seems to have happened AFTER he left office, or at least it didn’t effect his policies very much while he was in office. The bottom line is that he talks the talk now (for the most part) but he’s got to walk the walk in order to convince me that he’s not just spouting a bunch of campaignspeak purposely designed and packaged to appeal to the largest segment of Republican voters.