After passing the bill through committee yesterday, the Maryland Senate will soon consider whether to adopt "Clean Elections," the public funding of state legislative elections. The powerful Senate President, Mike Miller, has thrown his considerable weight behind the defeat of the bill. It's not clear why, but he's given some indications.
First let's look at what the bill does: modeled on the successful systems in Maine and Arizona (and the approved-and-soon-to-be-launched system in Connecticut), it creates a voluntary system for candidates for the General Assembly to qualify for and receive public funding to run their campaigns in the primary and general election. To do that, they must show a base of support by collecting a threshold number of small contributions. If this sounds familiar, it's because Sens. Durbin and Specter just introduced the Fair Elections Now Act in Congress, and Adam B's excellent summary of that bill serves well to describe the process that is mimicked in the Maryland bill (SB 546).
Indeed, it's a powerful reform to sever the direct link between special interest money and candidates for legislative office.
Senate EHE committee chair Joan Carter Conway has championed the bill through her committee and deserves a ton of credit, as do the sponsors, Sen. Paul Pinsky and Del. Jon Cardin. But a number of Maryland Democrats, led by Miller, have yet to sign onto this bill. Miller's opposition seems to blow with the political winds, from concerns about "spending taxpayer dollars on politicians" to pinning it on the state's budget deficit.
There's easy answers to both of those. As for the budget deficit--which, indeed, needs to be solved--the bill has attached a trigger so that it only goes into effect when the state passes a new revenue package to fill the budget hole. This seems like a near certainty. But in the immediate term, it wouldn't impact the budget.
The Washington Post dealt with this argument over a month ago:
The common excuse is cost. The Senate president, Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert), has declared himself opposed to spending taxpayers' dollars on politicians. That's a fine populist sentiment, but in fact the cost of a sensible public financing proposal for legislative races (not statewide offices) is modest -- an estimated $28 million in the course of a four-year election cycle. A bill before the General Assembly is modeled on rules already working well in Maine and Arizona. And public funding's advocates make the not implausible argument that the scheme would pay for itself soon enough as lawmakers, less beholden to special interests and corporate contributors, trimmed pork-barrel spending and tax breaks for the favored few.
Not to mention that the whole idea of a "Clean Elections"-style public financing program is that it's a public good, meant to improve the way that elected officials campaign and govern, and taxing ourselves in order to achieve that goal is perfectly legitimate.
In fact, Durbin himself tackled this on the Senate floor last week with his own personal story (the whole speech is worth watching):
For years, I have always resisted the idea of public financing of political campaigns. I used to have this kind of quick response when people asked me about public financing. It was a pretty good one. I used to say I don't want a dime of Federal taxpayer dollars going to some racist such as David Duke running for office. It was a pretty good response, but frankly, as I reflect on it now, it ignores the obvious. For every miscreant like David Duke, there are thousands of good men and women in both political parties who were forced into a system that is fundamentally corrupting.
All this comes on the heels of a scandal involving a former state Senator taped by the FBI boasting that he used his legislative power to help big companies like Comcast in exchange for favors to his family and friends.
As the Baltimore Sun suggested, "the indictment of business-as-usual in Annapolis is scathing."
Will this all be enough to sway a majority of the state Senate to support SB 546?
If you support public financing of campaigns and you live in--or know someone in--Maryland, you ought to get in touch with your state Senator right away. The vote is likely tomorrow or early next week. The general assembly's toll free number is 1-800-492-7122.