Corporate Political Spending Conference

I participated in a panel discussion with Thomas Hamburger, of The Washington Post’s National Desk, at the Conference Board’s annual Corporate Political Spending Conference. The conference was chaired by Trevor Potter, the former FEC chairman perhaps now best known as comedian Stephen Colbert’s lawyer. Moderated by Peter Cook, chief Washington correspondent for Bloomberg TV, our panel was titled “Money, Politics and the Press in a Volatile Election: What Companies Should Be Aware Of.”

At one point Peter asked us: What would you regard as progress in this arena? I think some conference participants might have expected Tom or me to take some sort of policy position, either for or against campaign finance regulations. My response, however, was that I would like to see the discussion move beyond rigid partisan disputes, so folks on both sides could begin a serious discussion of real solutions.