Campaign finance today is characterized by an expanding political arena in which significantly increasing amounts of money flow in novel and constantly changing ways. A generation ago, the cutting edge was that, rather than relying on the political parties, candidates were raising and spending money to advance their own candidacies. Today, the candidate-centered campaign is conventional, and the trend is away from spending that is under candidates' control and towards a broad range of new actors engaged in a wide array of political activities. Whole new categories of players (e.g., bundlers and groups which spend money to communicate with voters about candidates but which do not coordinate their activities with any candidate or party) now operate outside of the rules set up for the system as it existed in 1974. And whole new categories of money (e.g., soft money and party spending undertaken independently of any candidate's campaign) are unregulated, subject only to limited disclosure.

The New Realities pose new problems. And these new problems require New Thinking; many reform ideas advanced in the past few years simply will not work in today's campaign finance environment.

Specifically, the problems of today's campaign finance system fall under three headings. We identify each of these problems and recommend steps to address it. However, before tackling reform, we note that it is time for diminished expectations; given our conflicting goals and the constitutional, political, and pragmatic restraints of the American system, regulation will not give us everything we might want.