Campaign Donors for Campaign Reform

By Robert Morgan

Several months ago I traveled to Raleigh to reunite with some old friends and colleagues, such as former U.S. Rep. Tim Valentine, former legislators Wib Gulley and Ronnie Smith and several North Carolina political leaders, both Democrats and Republicans. A number of other friends joined us.

They came to Raleigh to respond to a plea I made to campaign donors around the state: to stand up and say enough is enough and to demand the legislature begin the process of reforming our campaigns to reduce the corrosive influence of money over politics.

Over 700 political leaders answered my letter and pledged their support of campaign finance reform, including Republican former legislators and congressmen, and Democrats who had served on our Council of State, like Ed Renfrow and Janice Faulkner.

That by itself may not be ground-shaking news. We know that many people support campaign reform and want to reduce special-interest influence over elections. However, this is a group that is intimately involved in the campaign process. Together, they have made over $7 million in campaign contributions. They understand the importance of electing good men and women. They understand that elections are getting more and more expensive, tripling in cost over the last decade. They all agree that the system has gotten out of control.

North Carolina was once highly regarded as the “Good Government State.” Today it is embarrassing that so many of our public servants have apparently sold votes, or at the very least, been improperly influenced in their decisions as they struggle to raise campaign cash.

However, if the role of special interests is limited in campaign fundraising, they will have less influence on elections, allowing lawmakers to devote more time to solving the problems of average North Carolinians. If candidates do not have to rely on big campaign contributions, there will be a more level playing field and more regular citizens can run for office.

Most importantly, public financing gives citizens the ability to run without relying on personal wealth, or accepting hundreds of thousand of dollars of special-interest money, or financing their races through gifts from the special interests they are supposed to regulate.

That’s where these friends I mentioned come back into the picture. The state legislature adopted a proposal we support called Voter-Owned Elections, to be tried out on some Council of State races next year. The concept is that elected officials ought to be accountable to the voters and taxpayers, not special interests. By creating a public campaign fund, candidates can opt into a program where they limit their spending and say no to special-interest money, and in return they can get matching funds to help run a competitive campaign.

As it’s similar to the program we use for our Supreme Court and Court of Appeals elections, you probably know the rest: In order to qualify for public funds, candidates are required to raise small contributions from lots of people in order to prove that they have a significant level of public support. All qualifying candidates receive an equal amount of funds to finance their campaigns.

I applaud our state lawmakers for passing the Voter-Owned Elections pilot project this summer. However, it is unlikely that this trial program would have been possible if not for the phone calls, e-mails and personal messages sent by our state’s senior former statesmen and women.

When the vote on the bill looked as if it might fail, the efforts of these friends -- who have been out there on the campaign trail and who have had to raise millions of dollars themselves -- saved the day. Former Gov. Jim Hunt may have, himself, preserved our victorious margin in the House of Representatives through his efforts.

In 2008 the state will offer public financing for three Council of State races and give us the chance to see how the program works. It’s a sensible step in the right direction and could do much to reduce the influence of special-interest dollars in our elections.