Presidential campaign fund falls on hard times
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports: Fifteen years ago, one out of every five taxpayers designated a dollar of their taxes for the U.S. presidential campaign fund.
But since then, the number of those checking that box on their IRS forms has plummeted by 43 percent, pushing the publicly funded account to near-record lows.
Like their constituents, more presidential candidates are bypassing public financing — to the point where the system designed to reduce democracy's cost is becoming useless, experts say. ...
Congress established public financing for presidential campaigns in the 1970s as a response to the Watergate scandal during Richard Nixon's presidency. It was widely heralded as the best way to erase the influence of money in politics and make campaign fundraising as transparent as possible. -- STLtoday - News - Story