A Supreme Court ruling Thursday striking down limits on corporate political spending will be felt in election campaigns across the country this fall, especially in close Senate races like those predicted for Missouri and Illinois.
Illinois reform advocates say the ruling probably couldn't be used to challenge the new limits on state-level campaign donations that take effect next year because those limits apply only to donations of cash and services, not independent expenditures made on behalf of candidates.
But Kent Redfield, professor emeritus of political science at UIS and one of the proponents pushing the state to implement more limits, said the ruling could stymie future attempts by reformers to impose stronger restrictions in other areas.
Redfield's comments were featured in the January 22, 2010, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
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20100122-STLPostDispatch-Cash.pdf
