NO FOOD STAMPS FOR MISSOURI POLITICIANS

A liberal Missouri political figure recently chose the forum of a liberal group in Columbia to push a liberal idea that is overwhelmingly unpopular with Missourians, as indeed with most Americans. This time, former Lt. Gov. Harriett Woods wants to place on the ballot an initiative that would set up taxpayer financing of political campaigns in Missouri.

Woods spoke recently to the Missouri Alliance for Campaign Reform. This group would have to collect 70,000 valid signatures before a July 2 deadline to make the November ballot. Missourians in the higher tax brackets would pay even more state income taxes to finance the proposal, if it passed.

Included in it are some especially noxious provisions. The proposal would limit spending, effectively limiting the constitutionally guaranteed right of free speech. This must be resisted at all costs. We need more speech, not less, in our public discourse.

There's more, nearly all of it bad. To access the public campaign money, candidates would have to agree not to use private funds except "seed money" -- a large number of $5 contributions indicating they have a support base. A candidate for governor would need 3,000 of these $5 donations in seed money to qualify for $1 million from public campaign coffers. Candidates would have to spend incredible amounts of time racing around collecting $5 checks.

Thus would a ludicrous, Rube Goldberg-style scheme of regulation be grafted onto the free and competitive races that are Missouri's election campaigns. We don't need food stamps for politicians. Missourians should reject this liberal idea out of hand, should it advance as far as the November ballot.