CAMPAIGN FINANCES BEST TRACKED BY FULL, ACCURATE DISCLOSURE

If there is any subject under whose banner more misinformation flies than that of "campaign finance reform", it would be hard to name. An organization calling itself the Missouri Alliance for Campaign Reform is out pumping for "public" -- read, your taxes -- financing of our politicians' campaigns.

This idea has been accurately labelled "food stamps for politicians" by critics and is overwhelmingly opposed in every public opinion poll that asks the question. About 30 groups are members of the coalition pushing the idea, including labor unions, the League of Women Voters, welfare and environmental groups. Oh yes, also among the members are some mainline Protestant churches who have evidently decided that saving souls for Jesus

Christ isn't enough, so it's time to plunge into politics. Those would be the ones who are rapidly losing members to churches that focus on the proper clerical role, but that's an editorial for another day.

A bill was introduced in the General Assembly by a liberal representative from St. Louis seeking to adopt the Alliance plan for public financing of campaigns. It went nowhere. Backers say they may try the route of proposing a ballot initiative for all voters to decide.

It can't be repeated too often: The answer to money in politics is disclosure, full and accurate, complete and timely. In this regard, it is interesting to note that technology is taking us through a quantum leap in timely disclosure. Missouri has had a strong disclosure law on the books for nearly a quarter-century. If people care to bother themselves as to the source of a candidate's money, and how he or she spends it, they can obtain the quarterly disclosure reports those candidates are required to file. But with the advent of the Internet, any citizen with access to a computer and a modem can access these reports without waiting to read them in the newspaper. For that matter, news reporters can access them that much easier, the better to inform the consumers of their news products. An improvement in the law would be to require candidates to file reports on the Internet weekly, say, every Friday for that week's receipts and expenditures. Then, let the people decide who is being influenced and for what reasons. But please, no more about compulsory taxpayer financing of campaigns.