Tom Edsall’s is the latest of a series of pieces purporting to explain the paralyzing conflicts over campaign finance regulation, and his culprit is the Republican Party.  Republicans, he argues, have shifted positions as they have become more dependent on large donations to meet the rising costs of campaigns. And there are more of those massive sums to be had now that the Court has opened the doors to rapidly escalating independent and nonprofit group activity.  Edsall suggests that while the Republican Party was once a leader in the attraction of small donors and partial to mandated disclosure, the GOP has now been driven by self-interest to a position of unyielding opposition to the regulation across-the-board.

The Tokaji-Strause report on independent spending is an enterprising and interesting examination of how a sample of politicians and political operatives experience the expanding universe of “outside money.”  It aspires to and largely achieves fair-mindedness in describing the limits of its project and of the conclusions drawn from this kind of research material.  And in a campaign finance debate in which the opposing sides scour fresh publications for rhetorical advantage, it offers something to both sides.