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Fair Elections in the News

 

Public campaign funds invest in democracy

Springfield Republican, Sunday, March 19, 2006
By PETER VICKERY

America has been producing campaign finance laws for almost a century. Ninety-nine years ago, President Theodore Roosevelt's State of the Union address called for public financing of political campaigns. That was the year Congress passed the Tillman Act, which banned corporations from making contributions to federal campaigns. A lot has changed since 1907, but the central role of money in politics remains the same.

So the time for meaningful public campaign financing is now. Massachusetts has the opportunity to pass a law that would encourage small-dollar contributions, enable candidates to spend more time focusing on the real bread-and-butter issues, and give the voters greater freedom of choice. We already have public campaign financing for statewide offices such as governor and lieutenant governor. Now it is time to expand the law to cover the Legislature as well.The problem is not politics and it is not money. Politics is not dirty, money is not evil, and money in politics is not immoral. There will always be money in politics, unless and until the Post Office stops charging for stamps, the telephone companies stop sending out bills, and airtime is free. Political campaigns are about communication, and communication costs money.

So what is the problem? Lack of competition. Massachusetts usually ranks 48th or 49th out of 50 in terms of contested legislative elections. An election implies freedom of choice. But in an uncontested election there is no choice at all, and without competitive elections democracy begins to wither.

 

Voting rights group push for new law

Wilmington Advocate, Thursday, February 23, 2006 

Mass Voters for Fair Elections, a new grassroots organization, is announcing a push for public campaign financing for legislative elections in Massachusetts. The proposed law would allow candidates for the House and Senate to earn $3 of public matching funds for every dollar they raise privately so long as they agree to reasonable contribution and spending limits.

Currently, statewide candidates who opt in can receive $1 of public money for every dollar they raise.

"Massachusetts already has public campaign financing for statewide offices; now it's time for legislative races," said Peter Vickery, executive director of Mass Voters.

"This is about investing in democracy. This is not about getting money out of politics. There will always be money in politics."

Mass Voters has a twin-track approaching to passing the public campaign financing law: Both pushing for legislation and gearing up to place a question on the 2008 ballot.

Mass Voters and its legislative allies modeled their bill on New York City's public financing system and the current Massachusetts state law.

"Maine, Connecticut, and New York City have public campaign financing already, and New Jersey is experimenting," noted Vickery. "Massachusetts should be ahead of the curve in democratic reforms, not behind."

Mass Voters is holding its first statewide meeting in Worcester on Sunday, March 26.

 

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  • Senator John McCain: "Clean Elections could work here" - Boston Globe, June 24, 2001
    Hailing from a state further along in its experiment with publicly financed campaigns, US Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, says he thinks Clean Elections can work in Massachusetts. Arizona's version ''has worked pretty well,'' McCain said. ''We have some wrinkles, as with any new law of this nature, but we are pleased with it ... public financing has been preferable to the old system," McCain said. In an interview with the Globe, McCain also had this to say: ''It is an interesting thing to me how incumbents seem to dislike it more than anybody else, no matter where they fall on the political spectrum. That's clearly because they see it as a threat to incumbency.''
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