In what is being hailed as a substantial victory for campaign reform in North Carolina, the N.C. General Assembly passed the Voter-Owned Elections pilot project amid a flurry of legislative action in the waning days of this year’s session.

The pilot program will be launched with the 2008 elections and offer public financing to candidates for three Council of State offices -- state auditor, commissioner of insurance and state superintendent of public instruction. The measure will also feature these candidates in a voter guide produced by the State Board of Elections.

Proponents of the measure are praising its passage as an important move toward reducing the role of special-interest money in North Carolina’s elections, while providing voters with more information on the candidates in these Council of State races.

"This is a victory for people-empowered democracy and a win for the people of North Carolina,” said Chase Foster of the nonpartisan coalition N.C. Voters for Clean Elections, which played a key role in the measure’s passage. “This bill improves public education about our system of government, gives hard working, community-focused candidates a competitive chance to run for office, and increases public confidence in government by making it possible to run for our state's top regulatory offices without taking money from the groups these offices regulate."

Candidates will be able to voluntarily opt into the program, and could qualify for public funds if they first demonstrate a measure of popular support by raising a number of small donations from registered North Carolina voters.

The state House approved the Voter-Owned Elections pilot project (HB 1517) by a slim two-vote margin -- 59-57. The Senate voted 28-19 to pass the bill. Yet a study commissioned by the nonpartisan N.C. Center for Voter Education (NCCVE) reveals that North Carolina voters are not nearly as divided as state lawmakers in their support of the program.

Conducted just weeks before the bill’s passage, the survey finds that 68 percent of state voters favor a pilot program of public financing for Council of State races.

The strong public support for the program appears to be due to the public’s concerns about the influence of money in state politics, coupled with a dearth of information on the candidates, according to Chris Heagarty, executive director of the N.C. Center for Voter Education.

“Voters recognize a dangerous paradox when it comes to Council of State races,” said Heagarty. “The cost of campaigning for these offices is on the rise, even as most voters have no idea who these candidates are or what these offices do. That opens the door to the very industries and interests regulated by the Council of State to pour money into these races in hopes of shaping the outcome of the elections, and thus public policy.”

The poll finds that 92 percent of state voters believe that campaign contributions influence the decisions of elected officials -- with 53 percent saying that these contributions have a great deal of influence. Also, 84 percent of voters are troubled by possible conflicts of interest in state government due to private campaign contributions.

In fact, when presented with two otherwise identical candidates whose only difference is that one receives public funds while the other takes special-interest money, 54 percent of voters would favor the taxpayer-funded candidate over his privately financed rival, according to the poll. Only 28 percent would vote for the contender who accepts special-interest contributions.

The study also finds that voters are more able to correctly identify Jack Bauer as the fictional star of the television show “24” than they can name current members of the Council of State.

“The Voter-Owned Elections pilot project responds to the concerns and needs of voters as shown in this study by offering candidates an alternative to special-interest cash, while empowering voters with more facts on the candidates through a voter guide,” Heagarty said.

The new program is modeled after North Carolina’s system of public financing for its Supreme Court and Court of Appeals elections, which enjoys the support of 69 percent of state voters, according to the survey.

In the two election cycles in which judicial public financing has been available, 20 of the 28 candidates have opted into the program, with nine of the 11 winners in these races participating. At the same time, public funds have surpassed special-interest donations as the leading source of financing for these court contests.

"Passage of the Voter-Owned Elections pilot demonstrates once again that North Carolina is a national leader in campaign finance reform,” said Foster. “It will certainly bolster our efforts to continue to build more accessible, more accountable democratic systems in this state.”

Depending on how the new system fairs in 2008, lawmakers may look to extend public financing to other Council of State races in future elections. At a news conference releasing data from the NCCVE study, state Rep. Grier Martin (D-Wake), one of the chief sponsors of the Voter-Owned Elections pilot project, explained the aim of the program.

“It’s like dipping your toe in the water. If the temperature is right, we can choose at that time to dive on in, while on the other hand, if we think it’s a little cold, we can try something else. Or if we think we just want to stick with these races, we can do that also,” Martin said. “I think that after we stick our toe in, we’ll get some pretty good information on what the next step is.”