Washington, DC – Public Campaign’s executive director Nick Nyhart issued the following statement on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act today:

“We’re pleased that the Court upheld the substantial provisions of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA). Clearly, the Court believes money does not equal speech and that we can regulate the role of money in politics to enhance democracy. However, big money is still drowning the voices of average people in our electoral system. Regrettably, the Court did not address this core issue, that candidates and communities without access to wealth are essentially shut out of meaningful participation in the process. As our Color of Money study, which will be released tomorrow, shows, relying on private financing of campaigns disproportionately empowers predominantly white and wealthy communities and disenfranchises communities of color.

“We’re looking forward now to working with the sponsors of BCRA in fixing the broken presidential public financing system, by providing participating candidates with more public funding and by enhancing the role of small donors and average voters,” Nyhart added.

"The continued problem of big money in politics also shows that we need to bring full public financing to congressional campaigns, as would be done by a bill introduced by Rep. John Tierney (D-MA) just two weeks ago," continued Nyhart. "Under Rep. Tierney's proposal, candidates receive full public financing for their campaign once they qualify by collecting a set number of small contributions. This landmark legislation is law in five states--Arizona, New Mexico, North Carolina, Maine, and Vermont--where it has received widespread bi-partisan support. Only when we have full public financing of elections in place will our government truly be of, by, and for the people."

Founded in 1996, Public Campaign (www.publicampaign.org) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to sweeping reform that aims to dramatically reduce the role of big special interest money in American politics.