With this fall marking the first set of mid-term elections since Sept. 11, anything could happen, said Linda Killian, director of the Boston University Washington Journalism Program.
Killian said despite a Republican president in office, Democrats may not do as well as opposing parties have typically done in the past.
“Conventional wisdom says in the mid-term election of the president’s term, the opposing party usually does well,” Killian said. “But with Sept. 11 and other factors, there’s no way to tell.”
Killian joined BU alumnus and current National Public Radio correspondent Peter Overby yesterday in a forum at the College of Communication to discuss their views on campaign finance reform, the upcoming elections, current Washington party lines and journalistic integrity.
Both Overby and Killian agreed Republicans are nervous about the upcoming elections.
“It’s hard to imagine an election when there’s more uncertainty,” Overby said.
“It’s fist-to-fist, hand-to-hand combat out there, and there’s a lot on the line,” Killian said. “The Senate really hangs in the balance … Trent Lott, by anybody’s guess, is a miserable Senate leader.”
The two also shared their views on campaign finance reform.
“Can we clean up the mess in Washington, and is money the root of all evil?” Killian asked the audience.
“So now we have an election in just about a month and people are running like crazy to raise money,” she said. “The sort of conventional wisdom is that they have to raise all that they can before campaign finance reform takes effect.”
The Shays-Meehan Campaign Finance Reform Bill, passed last March, bans soft money contributions and will change the dynamics of politics in Washington, Killian said.
But Killian and Overby said the changes would not be drastic enough to give third party candidates a legitimate chance to enter the race.
“One of the supposed goals of campaign finance reform is to make it easier for challengers to break into the system,” Killian said. “But it won’t happen.”
Overby said campaign finance reform is “taking a complicated system and making it more complicated.”
Overby also spoke about going from his career in journalism, where he said he learned a “blend of cops and politics,” to his current position with NPR. His primary assignments are concerned with the relationships between lawmakers, lobbyists and fundraising, which he calls “hardcore politics.”
“Hardcore politics, not the razzle-dazzle of the campaign trail,” Overby said. “It’s what makes the razzle-dazzle possible.”
He reflected on one of his first assignments, when he was working for a New Jersey magazine. He was covering Bob Toricelli and his “sleazy fundraising,” he said.
Toricelli, who has recently been in the news for dropping out of the New Jersey Senate race, in turn wrote an angry letter to his editor which is now framed and hanging on Overby’s wall next to his various awards.
Killian encouraged the attendees to become involved with politics and learn as much as they could about them.
“There are a lot of problems in the country and the only way we can deal with them is to vote and to be concerned and as journalists report on the issues,” Killian said.
“I think they are both very conscientious journalists, who have important political insights,” said COM freshman Jessica Weingartner, who attended the event. “I was just generally impressed with the extent of their political knowledge.”