What Is It?

The West Virginia Public Campaign Financing Act is a voluntary system modeled after laws in Maine and Arizona, where 85 percent and 60 percent of the state legislators, respectively, are now free from special interest ties. 

"Voter-owned" elections have broad bi-partisan support, have increased voter participation, and have resulted in a more diverse slate of candidates.

To qualify for public financing, candidates must start by collecting a set number of small contributions, usually $5, from registered voters in their district. The show of public support required will weed out so-called "fringe" candidates. Qualified candidates must agree to accept no further private contributions and refrain from spending their own money. In exchange they receive a modest amount of public money, sufficient to mount a viable campaign.

Seven states have adopted full public financing programs, most of which were passed by voters through the initiative process.  However, Connecticut’s legislature passed the measure in 2006, and surveys indicate that up to 83 percent of incumbents and 76 percent of other candidates say they intend to run using the program in its first election cycle this year.

The amount of money required for a Clean Elections system may seem high but it is actually very low in relation to the cost of legislative and regulatory favors routinely given to wealthy special interest contributors. When the total cost is broken down per average taxpayer, it comes to less than $6 a year.

Free and open elections are a public good and indeed, the bedrock of our democracy.  To provide some sort of government funding for candidates reduces the possibility of corruption, reduces the amount of time a candidate spends raising private funds, and diminishes the role that special interests have in determining public policy. 

(OVEC and WV Citizen Action Group have been taking the lead in this broad coalition effort, which is now supported by 25 organizations in WV.)

How Do We Fund It?

Here in West Virginia, we are contemplating a variety of funding mechanisms for a Public Campaign Financing system, looking at models and experiences from other states.

For example, Maine’s clean elections program has

been so successful that the Legislature funds it from the general revenue of the state. Eighty-five percent of their legislators ran and won under the system in 2006.

In Arizona, which elected the country’s first Clean Elections Governor, Janet Napolitano, the system is funded by a 10 percent surcharge on civil and criminal penalties over $1,000.

This method of funding has been so successful that for the past two election cycles, the Clean Elections system has been able to return over $1million in left-over monies to the state’s general revenue account.

Connecticut, the newest state to adopt a public financing program, is funding the system through monies in the state’s unclaimed assets account. These are monies that are abandoned in bank and other accounts, and have reverted to the state.

The last two of these financing systems have the advantage of not being "tax money," which can answer any complaints about taxpayer money being spent to fund politicians’ campaigns.

West Virginia’s Public Campaign Financing Act (H4050 and S240) as currently written would use a combination of these methods, along with a possible tax check-off on the state income tax form.