[EL] Public financing vs. money out

[Thomas J. Cares]

It's not a big leap that public financing could alleviate the
undue influence of big private-sourced money in politics.

How do you think Jerry Brown would have done against Meg Whitman's 9
figures, if he'd only raised 4 million?

Exorbitant money will beat no money (save maybe the pg&e anti-cca
initiative), but it does little against sufficient money (see e.g. Jeb
Bush). If we had a public finance system that enabled worthy candidates to
raise sufficient money from public funds, it can completely neutralize the
influence of private money.

I think a congressional candidate who raises 600k from a voter voucher
system would typically beat one who raises 2 million from the energy and
finance sectors. A solid congressional campaign is doable on 600k, and the
opponent's 2 million will likely backfire.


Thomas Cares

On Thursday, March 10, 2016, Larry Levine <larrylevine at earthlink.net> wrote:

> Let's assume President Sanders, or President Clinton, or President anyone
> else could overturn Citizens United. Now tell me how that gets money out of
> politics. Debate moderators are not challenging candidates on this
> misstatement. There was PAC spending on campaigns even before Citizens
> United and there will continue to be after Citizens United. Tonight,
> Sanders
> went one step further and offered that the solution to political problems
> is
> to repeal Citizens United and institute public financing. Of course, one
> thing has nothing to do with the other. And neither of them will eliminate
> money in politics. But I'm not sure if the debate moderators understand
> that.
> Larry
>
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