New Hampshire lawmakers will soon debate major changes in the way state elections are funded. The proposed Voter-Owned Elections Act would require candidates to choose between the current private funding system and one with private and public funding.
In election years, the bipartisan plan would give every voter four $25 certificates, called Voter Dollars, to contribute to candidates they choose. The system would cover the races for governor and Executive Council at first, adding state House and Senate races the following election. But from the beginning, only candidates who agreed to strict, enforceable limits on other sources of campaign funds could redeem Voter Dollars.
Public funding of elections, here and nationally, is a response to decades of escalating campaign costs. That escalation has made candidates, especially for high office, increasingly dependent on big donations from special interests and a tiny and unrepresentative group of campaign megadonors. Sweetheart contracts and other forms of crony capitalism are the inevitable result. By eliminating them, public funding would pay for itself over time.
For now, the estimated $2.7 million annual cost could come from sources including higher registration fees for lobbyists and PACs, fines for election-law violations and voluntary donations.
States including Maine and Connecticut and a growing number of cities and other jurisdictions already have public funding systems, which are inherently nonpartisan and generally work well. After Watergate, Congress created public funding for presidential elections, which worked well for a quarter-century. Major-party candidates stopped using it only when we let public funding lag far behind available private funding. How costly was that? Consider this: President Reagan used public funding and attended three fundraisers in the run-up to his re-election in 1984; President Obama used private funding and attended 220 fundraisers in the run-up to his re-election in 2012.
A report by Open Democracy, a Concord-based nonprofit founded by Doris “Granny D” Haddock, demonstrates the need in our state. Being wealthy or well-connected has become a requirement to run for governor and win. Winners of the last 10 gubernatorial races contributed to their own campaigns, led by Craig Benson, who spent $10.6 million in 2002. In 2016, almost half of the contributions to candidates for governor came from out of state. The bill would limit out-of-state contributions to 10 percent of a candidate’s total.
Governors work closely with the Executive Council, whose five members, like governors, are elected every two years. The council approves or rejects contracts and nominations for judgeships and other high state offices. Many of the contracts are worth millions, but council candidates can (and some do) raise money from donors with state contracts, an obvious conflict of interest.
A poll a year ago showed that most Granite Staters consider big money a problem in state elections. We think wealthy donors have the most political influence in our state, followed by lobbyists and big corporations. We, the people, rank just fourth. A bipartisan majority of us support a system like Voter-Owned Elections, a transparent, direct way to put voters back in charge.
The bill cannot limit spending by Super PACs and other outside groups, but participating candidates would have to publicly oppose independent spending on their behalf. As public concern about the power of outside spending groups grows, such disavowals can help candidates.
Most candidates hate fundraising and recognize that big money politics makes many voters question not only the candidates’ integrity, but that of the whole system. Public funding will boost public trust in our elections.
Starting in 2000, there have been four bipartisan efforts to bring public funding to New Hampshire. Let’s pass this bill for our own benefit and, with our 2020 presidential primary barely a year away, bolster the case that New Hampshire deserves the privilege of holding the nation’s earliest presidential primary.
(Joe Magruder, a volunteer for Open Democracy, lives in Concord.)