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Buying Influence in '04

The election that launched campaign finance reform

Complaints about buying political influence have been around as long as democracy. But organized efforts at U.S. campaign finance reform began only in the aftermath of the 1904 presidential election, which pitted Democratic judge Alton B. Parker against Republican president Theodore Roosevelt.

Roosevelt became president in 1901, after a deranged anarchist assassinated President William McKinley. And though he's famous today as a "trustbuster," he was elected vice president on a McKinley ticket run by Republican Party boss Mark Hanna, the original king of corporate fundraising.

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