Former White House senior adviser David Axelrod took to Twitter on Wednesday to call for an end to the “SuperPac and faux SuperPac game,” and proposing a campaign finance system where fully-disclosed funds go straight to candidates as an alternative.
“Too much money in politics,” Axelrod wrote, in the second of three Tweets. “But if it’s inevitable, let it flow directly to candidates and demand full disclosure, with stiff penalties.”
Axelrod, who also served as a senior strategist for President Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns, called the current campaign finance system a “mess” that has “created a cottage industry for lawyers who devise schemes to circumvent them.”
Here are Axelrod’s tweets, in order.
Campaign finance system is a mess.Limits have just created a cottage industry for lawyers who devise schemes to circumvent them. 1/3
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) February 20, 2013
Too much money in politics. But if it’s inevitable, let it flow directly to candidates and demand full disclosure, with stiff penalties.2/3
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) February 20, 2013
And end the SuperPac and faux SuperPac game that too often allows donors to elude detection and candidates to deny responsibility. 3/3.
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) February 20, 2013
On Tuesday, NBC announced Axelrod had joined NBC News and MSNBC as a senior political analyst.
Eric Lach
Eric Lach is a reporter for TPM. From 2010 to 2011, he was a news writer in charge of the website’s front page. He has previously written for The Daily, NewYorker.com, GlobalPost and other publications. He can be reached at ericl(at)talkingpointsmemo.com
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