At the national level, President Theodore Roosevelt is credited with launching the discussion of campaign finance reform when, in his 1905 message to Congress, he proposed that "contributions by corporations to any political committee or for any political purpose should be forbidden by law."
Over the years, many forms of campaign finance reform have been tried. Our committee has been studying a particular type of reform — publicly financed campaigns. Traditional campaign finance reform seeks to limit campaign contributions, while publicly financed campaigns allow voluntary participation and an unlimited number of small contributions.
Different terms have been used for publicly financed campaigns: Clean Elections, Fair Elections, Clean Money, Clean Campaigns, Publicly Financed Elections, and Voter Owned Campaigns.
Whatever name is used, the groups behind these efforts are looking for solutions to problems of widespread concern: