Posted on 10/11/2002 5:12:47 AM PDT by GailA
Hilleary challenging Bredesen about law that's been ruled unconstitutional
By Woody Baird, Associated Press October 11, 2002
MEMPHIS - The election finance law Van Hilleary keeps accusing Phil Bredesen of ignoring was seen as a legal long shot even by its backers in 1995.
The law limits the amount a candidate in a statewide race can spend on his or her own campaign to $250,000.
In their race for governor, Republican Hilleary has repeatedly chided Bredesen, a millionaire, for refusing to promise to abide by that restriction.
Bredesen, a Democrat and former mayor of Nashville, spent $6 million of his own money in a failed race for governor in 1994.
He has not put his own money into this campaign but says he will if Hilleary continues paying for attack ads with contributions raised by President Bush and other top Republicans.
Bredesen says Hilleary's attacks make little sense since state election regulators already have said spending limits on candidates violate the U.S. Constitution.
Lawmakers knew those limits likely would be ruled illegal but passed them anyway as part of overall campaign ethics reform, Rep. Matt Kisber, a backer of the legislation, said Monday.
Including that spending limit helped satisfy reform opponents who argued they could penalize candidates who were not personally wealthy, said Kisber, a Jackson Democrat.
"It was an effort to try to strike a balance in the proposal, recognizing there were constitutional issues," Kisber said.
Overall, the campaign reforms limit the amount of money individuals and political action committees can contribute to candidates.
But on a candidate's personal spending, the U.S. Supreme Court had already found in other states that such restrictions were violations of free speech.
Tennessee legislators thought, however, that the high court might take another look at the issue, Kisber said.
"But the attorney general would not handle the case, and it would have required a significant amount of money to be spent on what probably was a long shot, and I think everyone decided it was not worth pursuing," Kisber said.
Tennessee's attorney general has ruled the spending limit unconstitutional.
"Based on that, our board voted not to enforce it," said Drew Rawlins, director of the Registry of Election Finance.
Even though the law is not enforced, it is still on the books.
Rawlins said the law, if enforced, would cover campaign loans as well as direct contributions.
Come to think of it AlGorebatross has only campaigned for 2 Tennessee canidates. Leftist boby clement who is running against Lamar, and socialist sherry fisher who is running against Heroine anti-income tax warrior Mae Beavers for state Senate.
I wish News Max or World Net Daily would pick this story up.
Gore's role minor in state politics Bredesen keeping his distance from ex-vice president
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.