Campaign Finance Reform Gets a Boost From Business Giants

In a full-page spread in Roll Call Wednesday Thursday, a long list of business executives are trumpeting their support for an unlikely proposal: Legislation that would rein in the influence of business over congressional lawmakers.

“We are on the receiving end of Senators’ and Representatives’ endless fund-raising calls,” the ad reads. “And trust us: we hate getting those calls every bit as much as they hate making them.”

Signed by an impressive list of 34 business giants — including Arnold Hiatt, former Stride Rite CEO; Alan G. Hassenfeld, executive committee chairman of Hasbro Inc.; Christie Hefner, former chairman and chief executive of Playboy; Gordon Segal, chairman of Crate & Barrel; and Gerald Grinstein, former CEO of Delta Airlines — the ad promotes passage of the Fair Elections Now Act, a bipartisan proposal to promote public financing of elections and mitigate the disproportionate influence of moneyed interests over the campaign process.

The concept of public financing was supported by President Obama in the run-up to November’s election, though the White House has been largely silent on the issue this year.

The ad, sponsored by Common Cause and Public Campaign Action Fund, coincides with a Thursday hearing on the FENA bill in the House Administration Committee.