Guiniven column
covers campaigns

An op-ed column by School of Communications faculty member John Guiniven headlined "The High Cost of Political Campaigns" ran in the Sept. 5 edition of the Greensboro News & Record. As a former aide to U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., in the 1970s, Guiniven was involved in the formulation of campaign-finance reform legislation.

Guiniven notes that more than $2 million per day has been flowing into the political campaign coffers of the Democrats and Republicans over the past year, despite the McCain-Feingold campaign reform act. He details increases in campaign financing, gives a brief historic overview of the discussion and enactment of reforms that began back in the 1970s and explains the creation of the Federal Election Commission which, he says, "basically legalized the existing system that had run amok," adding, "Let's have no more campaign-finance reform. We can't afford it."

Guiniven covers corporate contributors, condemns the "truncated primary system that discourages challengers" and the system of debates that work "against the principles of democracy."

He concludes by saying: "Perhaps before we spend too much effort and fortune exporting American democracy to the corners of the globe, we should assure the quality of the product here at home."