In an excellent article that features solid, real-world reporting, over at Dailykos ePluribus Media's Timothy Smith reports on a new campaign finance law proposed Representative David Obey.

House Resolution 4694, the "Let the People Decide Clean Campaign Act" -- introduced earlier this month by Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.) and co-sponsored by fellow liberal Democrats Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), Barney Frank and James McGovern (Mass.), Henry Waxman and Bob Filner (Calif.), Steve Israel (N.Y.), and Tim Ryan (Ohio) -- would allow nominees of parties that had averaged 25% of the vote for House races to receive full public funding.

All others would be required to produce signatures equal to at least 10 percent of the last vote cast in order to qualify for partial funding and 20 percent in order to receive full funding. In addition, any candidate who failed to qualify for funding would be denied the opportunity to spend privately raised monies on their campaigns.

The financing limits would be based on the median household income of the district in question, starting at $1.5M for a major party candidate in the wealthiest district in the country, and scaled down based on the percentage difference in household income between any given district and the wealthiest district. For example, in a district where the median household income is 70% that of the wealthiest district in America, the limit for that district would be $1.3M. In a district where the median household income is 40% that of the wealthiest district in America, the limit would be $900K.

This sounds pretty good, but where some difficulties arise around the definition of a "major party," and the limits imposed on candidates from other parties. In the bill, a "major party" is defined as a party that has averaged 25% of the vote in a given district, or a party that has gathered the signatures of 10% of the voters in the district in the previous election. This is obviously a barrier that no third party could ever regularly achieve. And the limits imposed on non-major parties are harsh. As Adam B notes:

There's more...