Campaign Funding Evaluated

The special section on campaign funding "The Money," March 5, was timely but disappointing in that it failed to address the single biggest cost of any campaign - TV advertising.

Cut TV-time costs and you will have gone a long way toward solving the problem. Since the airwaves are public property with license holders given a virtual moneymaking machine, why are all the commercial stations not required to air political messages on an equitable basis for all qualified candidates at no charge?

Surely fair formulas can be developed that would give all legitimate candidates equal access. And if equally fair and reasonable limits could be placed on all political spending we might get back to a level playing field.

In a democratic system of and by the people, the selling of a president (or any other office) shouldn't be determined by who can raise the most money. Requiring TV station owners to give free air time to candidates is not too big a price to pay. Bart Grabow, Indianapolis

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