Report Calls Limits On Campaign Funds Possibly Harmful

The results of a study of campaign spending in 1972 U.S. Senate campaigns, recently conducted by the Kennedy School of Government, show that legal limits placed on campaign contributions and expenditures may hurt the campaigns of candidates without easy access to funding.

The study, conducted by the Campaign Study Group under the direction of Roland J. Cole, a doctoral candidate at the Kennedy School, states that limits on campaign spending do not reduce dependence on financial contributors and may "seriously impair the ability of campaigns to conduct activities that serve the public."

'Danger'

"Large contributions may pose some danger of undue influence." Cole says in the report, "but most people who contribute large amounts to political campaigns also have other ways to gain influence over elected officials."

Legal limits on campaign spending are generally ineffective and should be eliminated. Cole concluded.

Cole recently filed a suit in the U.S. Supreme Court contesting the constitutionality of limit legislation.

But other members of the group including Hale Champion, chairman of the group and vice president for financial affairs disagreed with Cole's conclusion in a statement issued earlier this month.

"There is little real evidence...that appropriate contribution limits are on balance harmful to the campaign process," the majority of the group concluded.

The study is based on information from campaign reports obtained under the 1971 Federal Campaign Reform Law.

Other members of the group include Jonathan Moore, director of the Institute of Politics; Richard E. Neustadt, professor of Government; Marc Roberts, associate professor of Economics; John D. Stein-bruner, professor of Public Policy, and Gary R. Orren, associate professor of Government.

The group maintains a library of materials on political campaigning, election laws, public finance legislation, and the 1974 election