“Smokey, this is not ‘Nam. This is bowling. There are rules.”

There’s another article this morning on Missouri campaign contribution limits (I’ve blogged about this issue before). Apparently, the contribution limits are ineffective (surprise!).

Saint Louis Mayor Francis Slay is one of a handful of candidates who has voluntarily returned excess individual campaign contributions in anticipation of a decision by the Missouri Ethics Committee. But the irony is that he subsequently collected the same amount in contributions by breaking them up among multiple donors, with each individual contribution coming in under the state limit. This has become common practice at the federal level, and only exacerbates the “problem” of campaign disclosure.

But what does it matter whether or not the funds come from an individual donor? “It undermines democracy,” Nick Nyart, President of the Washington-based advocacy group Public Campaign says, “by making it difficult to track donations, and giving corporations more sway than voters.”

It seems to me that it undermines democracy (well, at least freedom) to restrict individuals from spending their money as they please.