Apr. 21, 2003
Cities Try to Blunt Local Election Costs
By J. Barlow Herget
RALEIGH - Local elections in Cary have gone up in price. With a population of about 100,000, Cary’s campaign for mayor in 1999 attracted well over $100,000 in political contributions.
The city wanted to do something to slow the money chase and reduce the influence of special interest contributors. It adopted a modest plan to help pay for campaign costs through voluntary public financing.
Proponents believe that such money not only reduces the influence of special interests and the time spent grubbing for their money, but it also helps open elections to candidates who don’t have access to big campaign contributions.
Several candidates for Cary City Council in the 2001 elections received public funds for their campaigns. In return, they agreed to limit their own spending. Three of the participants won. One winner accepted less than $4,000 and the two others, Jack W. Smith and Julie A. Robison, received $6,981 and $16,910 respectively in public funds.
There was a hitch. When the winners campaign spending was challenged in June 2002, the state Board of Elections ruled in July that Cary had overstepped its authority in making payments of more than $4,000 to the candidates.
The state Board, in effect, found that the Town of Cary was like any other campaign contributor and bound by the same rules that limit other campaign contributions to $4,000 per election. Smith was ordered to pay back $2,981 and Robison, $12,910. Ouch!
On April 1, 2003, Raleigh Superior Court Judge Ripley Rand affirmed the Board’s decision.
Sen. Wib Gulley, D-Durham, and 16 other senators have sponsored a bill to fix the underlying problem. While Cary may appeal Rand’s decision, Gulley believes it best to remedy the problem by approving legislation that authorizes local governments to undertake campaign finance reform.
Gulley’s bill will give Cary the authority to operate its public financing plan as adopted. But this is not a local bill just for Cary. It authorizes towns with a population over 30,000 and counties over 50,000 to establish their own respective programs of "public financing of election campaigns."
The legislation also changes the limit on campaign contributions for local governments. It allows them to lower the maximum contribution from $4,000 per individual. Says Gulley, "A lot of people from both parties understand that this is enabling legislation and it’s for local governments who might want to try this. They are our laboratories for democracy."
One of the sponsors, Sen. Eric Reeves, D-Wake, says, "This is part of our long term commitment to try to reduce the cost of local elections and make them more available to regular people."
Reeves and Gulley are timely in offering the legislation because this year is an election year for North Carolina towns and cities. And Cary citizens are not alone in their desire to consider public financing for local elections. Gully believes there are ‘hundreds and hundreds of local officials" interested in public campaign financing, noting that Durham municipal and country governments are among them. The cities of Asheville and Chapel Hill, according to the state Board of Elections, are also considering some type of public campaign financing.
Voters who were once shocked when a mayoral candidate in Raleigh or Winston-Salem or Charlotte spent $30,000 to get elected now read about candidates who spend $300,000 or $500,000. Four candidates for mayor in Raleigh in the 1999 election spent well over $1 million combined; it took only two candidates to achieve the same feat in 2001. For a job that pays $15,000 a year.
And where does that money come from?
Wealthy candidates can pay their own way, but most candidates raise their money from friends, relatives or people with special interest in city government. A study of Wake County’s 1998 local elections and Raleigh’s 1999 municipal elections, for example, found that the real estate development industry gave $549,411. All the other identifiable groups, retirees, attorneys, homemakers, banking and finance, insurance, etc., combined contributed about $310,000.
"The problems that go with expensive campaigns are well known and documented," says a brief filed by the N.C. Center for Voter Education, Common Cause North Carolina, League of Women Voters of N.C. and the N.C. Good Government Fund on behalf of Cary’s lawsuit. "The more expensive campaigns become, the fewer the number of citizens with the financial resources to become realistic candidates … The relatively few people who are able to contribute substantial sums of money gain the candidate’s attention and have greater influence. And the more influence money has on the election, the lower the public confidence in the election process."
Barlow Herget served two terms on the Raleigh City Council and is a contributor to "The North Carolina Century."
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