Photo: A screenshot of a Republican primary debate in November 2015
A huge majority – 77% – of the American public favors that “there should be limits on the amount of money individuals and organizations” can spend on political campaigns.
This contrasts with 20% of Americans who say politicians or organizations should be able to spend as much as they want.
According to Pew Research Center most Americans believe new laws could effectively reduce the role of money in politics.
The findings come in the wake of record finances that the candidates have spent on their campaigns in recent U.S. elections. The 2012 U.S. elections with an estimated expenditure of 5.8 billion dollars has been seen as the most expensive in the U.S. history.
The recent survey finds several indications of public concern over campaign spending with a widespread bipartisan thinking that “people who make large political donations should not have more political influence than others,”
Around 65% of Americans back the idea of new campaign finance laws to reduce the role of money in politics, while 31% say any new laws would not be effective.
A Pew report on its website says Democrats are more likely to support limits on campaign spending than are Republicans, and there is a similar gap in views on whether effective laws could be written.
“Still, 71% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say there should be limits on campaign spending and 54% say new laws that would be effective in limiting the influence of money in politics could be written. Among Democrats and Democratic leaners, even larger majorities favor spending limits (85%) and think new laws would be effective (77%).”
As regards the influence of donors, 74% members of public say it is very important that major political donors not have more influence than others, while an additional 16% view this as somewhat important, the Pew Research says.
SOURCE: Pew Research Center
