Election Reform: Public Campaign Funding
Tell your reps, "Enact Campaign Finance Reform NOW!"
Background
- How Public Funding Works
- FAQs
- Endorsements
- Fact Sheets
- Testimony in the General Assembly
- Power of Special Interests: Campaign Contributions & $800 Electric Hikes (2008)
- WHO'S GOT THE POWER? Electricity Deregulation And Campaign Finance (2008)
- Maryland Voters Support Public Campaign Funding by 72% (6pp-Oct. 2007)
- Final Report of the Maryland Study Commission on Public Funding of Campaigns (2004)
- Power to Voters, Not Special Interests, The Gazette (good overview)
- News articles about Progressive Maryland's work
- 2-minute video of Maine Senate President Beth Edmonds
testifying on the benefits of publicly financed campaigns. - More reports and resources from PM Education Fund and from Allies and Others
- Related Websites and Organizations
Power to the Voters, Not Special Interests!
To take power away from the special interests and return it to the voters in Maryland, we need a wide range of reforms: stronger enforcement of voting rights, modern and reliable voting equipment in all precincts, automatic or at least election-day voter registration, a “Democracy Day” holiday to boost turnout on election day, and other measures.
But we’ll never achieve these structural reforms as long as lawmakers feel more beholden to their big-money contributors than to the voters. In every session of the General Assembly, developers, HMOs, banks, the energy industry, liquor wholesalers, the tobacco companies – thanks to tens of millions of dollars in campaign contributions and lobbying fees – get the access to lawmakers that enables them to ram through their special interest agendas. These same corporate interests would surely thwart a comprehensive electoral reform package.
That’s why we need to introduce the reform that will strip the wealthy special interests of their best weapon: the ability to turn private money into political power. Public funding of campaigns makes it possible to pass laws to benefit all the voters, not just the HMOs, pharmaceutical companies, and other special interests that fund the campaigns of elected officials.
Public funding of campaigns is already law in Maine and Arizona, where it has worked well through four election cycles. It is a proven, sensible way to change the status quo so that voters can take back control of politics and make elected officials accountable. More than half of all candidates in Maine and Arizona -- incumbents and challengers, Democrats and Republicans -- use the system, with participation growing in each election. Connecticut enacted the reform in 2005, so has not yet used it in an election.
To push for public funding of campaigns, Progressive Maryland -- along with allies such as the NAACP, the League of Women Voters, Common Cause, and Sierra Club -- enacted legislation in 2002 to create an official study commission to examine our state's campaign finance crisis and, if appropriate, recommend reforms. That distinguished, bipartisan commission spent 18 months at its task, reviewing thousands of pages of research, hearing testimony from experts around the country, and commissioning a public opinion poll of Marylanders on the topic of campaign finance reform. Its report makes an airtight case in favor of public funding of campaigns for General Assembly races.
In the 2006 session of the General Assembly, Sen. Paul Pinsky and Delegate Jon Cardin submitted reform legislation based on the study commission's recommendation, which passed the House of Delegates. In 2007, we fell only one vote short of passing that bill through the Senate.
Please Take 30 secs. to Contact Your Lawmakers Now!
Learn More at the Links Above
Maryland Senate President Mike Miller (center) announces his support for the bill at a news conference March 6, 2009. With Miller are bill sponsor Sen. Paul Pinsky (left), Progressive Maryland’s Matthew Weinstein, and Common Cause's Ryan O'Donnell (not shown).
- Tell your reps, "Enact Campaign Finance Reform NOW!"
- March 6, 2009 News Release & Legislation Summary (3 pages)
- Gonzales Poll finding 72% support a Public Campaign Finance Option.
- Two "Hard Heads" Put Forward Campaign Finance Bill, Wash. Post, Mar 6, 2009
- Miller Backs Public Campaign Financing Plan, Balt. Sun, Mar 6, 2009
- Compromise Reached on Campaign Finance Rules, WBAL-TV story & video
- Miller Expected to Support Public Campaign Financing, Balt. Sun, Mar 5, 2009
- Public Campaign Financing Included in Miller-Backed Bill, Wash. Post, Mar 5, 2009
- Md. Campaign Finance Legislation To Be Announced, Examiner/AP, Mar 6, 2009
