"Campaign Finance Reform" Follies  Thomas Sowell  4/12/2001
12:00:00 AM - Thomas Sowell  To crusaders for "campaign finance
reform," as with many other political crusaders, the facts
simply do not matter. What matters is their vision -- and
winning. Facts can be left to others.  Most of the arguments for
campaign finance reform cannot stand up to the facts. Take the
notion that, without government regulation of campaign
contributions, people with big money will simply "buy the
election." What are the facts?  The long list of rich people who
became political candidates and lost, despite spending big bucks
out of their own pockets, goes back as far as William Randolph
Hearst and comes forward to Ross Perot and Steve Forbes. When
the Republicans won control of the House of Representatives in
1994, for the first time in 40 years, the average winning
Republican candidate spent less than the Democrat he defeated.
Then, four years later, when the Democrats staged a comeback and
reduced the Republican majority, their