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CGS has released seven studies of state public campaign financing laws in North Carolina (Judiciary), Florida, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and New Jersey (gubernatorial and legislative).
Public Campaign Financing in North Carolina Judiciary: Balancing The Scales, analyzes North Carolina's judicial public campaign financing law, which provides full public financing for the general election campaigns of Court of Appeals and Supreme Court candidates who meet certain qualifications. Balancing the Scales concludes that North Carolina's judicial campaign finance program is a model of reform and could become even stronger with additional adjustments.
Public Campaign Financing in Florida: A Program Sours, analyzes Florida's twenty-year old public financing program which provides public funds to eligible candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and state cabinet posts. The report concludes that Florida's campaign finance reform program needs to be reformed if it is to serve its stated purposes. The report details eleven reforms that Florida should implement in order to improve its once successful public financing program and solve the two primary problems facing the program; excessive expenditure limits and high spending by political parties.
Public Campaign Financing in Wisconsin: Showing Its Age finds that while Wisconsin in 1977 adopted one of the first and best public campaign financing laws in the nation, the legislature’s 1986 decision to limit funding to participating candidates made it difficult for them to compete. The report recommends that Wisconsin adopt a full public financing ("clean money") program, or implement a number of modest reforms to its existing system, including funding and spending limits for participating candidates.
Public Campaign Financing in Michigan: Driving Towards Collapse examines Michigan’s 32-year old gubernatorial public campaign financing program. It concludes that Michigan should either overhaul its public campaign financing law and provide additional funding for gubernatorial candidates, or abandon the program altogether and shift its funding to judicial campaigns for the state supreme court.
Public Campaign Financing in New Jersey—Legislature: A Pilot Project Takes Flight provides an in-depth analysis of New Jersey’s new public campaign financing program for select legislative elections. It concludes that New Jersey’s experiment with clean elections is a success and should be expanded to all legislative districts.
Public Campaign Financing in New Jersey—Governor: Weeding Out Big Money in the Garden State examines the nation’s first public campaign financing program for gubernatorial elections, and concludes that while the program functioned well for decades, it must now be reformed to account for new challenges such as independent expenditures, issue ads and high-spending opponents.
Public Campaign Financing in Minnesota: Damming Big Money in the Land of 10,000 Lakes concludes that while Minnesota’s public campaign financing program has long led the nation in limiting big money’s power in state elections, the program now faces a serious and growing challenge: independent expenditures by political parties and other non-candidate groups. |
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