Jun. 12, 2006
Summer Doldrums Extend through Election Day?
By Chris Heagarty
RALEIGH – Typically, the summer months between the primary and general elections are slow as voters take time off for vacations, and candidates save their resources, preparing to spend them when more people are paying attention. But for many North Carolina voters, this summer vacation from politics might extend all the way through November.
Although each seat in the state legislature is up for election this fall, about half of the candidates won't have to spend a cent on their campaigns. Their victory is already assured.
That's because 85 of the 170 races are completely unopposed. The incumbents have a free pass for two more years.
This lack of competition should be a profound concern to North Carolina voters. How accountable can our elected officials be to us if they've won before a single ballot has been cast?
One reason for no-contest elections is the process of redistricting. Every 10 years, state lawmakers are required to redraw legislative districts to make sure the districts keep up with shifts in the state's population, ensuring equal representation.
However, this has led to what the late state Senator Ham Horton said “allows legislators to select their constituents, instead of the other way around.”
Incumbents can count on a large number of so-called “safe districts”. That's where districts are designed to be so heavily weighted to favor the political party of the incumbent that a member of an opposing party has a snow cone's chance in a Raleigh July of winning. And who would want to be the snow cone?
A sensible reform would be to take the redistricting power out of the legislature's hands and give it to an independent commission with the aim of drawing the map to better represent neighborhoods and communities, rather than political parties. There may still be some politics involved, but there would be a lot less than when the districts are drawn by the people currently in office.
But the chances of this happening may be worse than those of the aforementioned snow cone.
A second deterrent to healthy competition is that many qualified potential candidates simply don't want their good names run through the mud by attack groups exploiting loopholes in current campaign laws.
While the practice of spending money to attack a candidate is nothing new, so-called “527 groups” have taken advantage of weak regulations and poured unlimited amounts of cash into shaping the outcome of elections, without having to disclose who they really are, or even a cent of what they spend, to the State Board of Elections.
The prospect of facing such a group is no doubt daunting to many would-be candidates. A recent study commissioned by the nonpartisan N.C. Center for Voter Education found that state voters, too, are troubled by these groups and their ability to play by different campaign rules.
Lawmakers ought to act now to address voters' concerns by more effectively regulating 527s. They can start by enacting contribution limits to these groups (presently the sky is the limit) and require greater transparency when it comes to 527 fundraising and spending.
And lawmakers should explore providing financial aid to candidates attacked by 527s, so that they can respond to the charges made against them.
That last suggestion gets to a third obstacle preventing more people from running for public office: money – or the lack thereof.
With the cost of campaigning on the rise, most North Carolinians simply can't afford to run for the legislature. Research last year by the N.C. Center for Voter Education found that 77 percent of state voters believe the cost of campaigning keeps qualified people from seeking public office.
Serious candidates, otherwise well qualified for office, could give voters more choices if we adopted a program of public financing for North Carolina's legislative elections.
Such a program wouldn't come out of thin air. North Carolina already has a successful system of public financing for our statewide judicial elections that has been lauded as a national model. It has helped judicial candidates limit their spending, freed them from having to call on wealthy donors, and instead has allowed them to spend more time reaching out to voters.
Admittedly, it's asking a lot of legislators to support measures that might encourage real competition for them come Election Day. But democracy is too important for voters to be sent on permanent vacation.
Chris Heagarty is the executive director of the N.C. Center for Voter Education, a Raleigh-based nonprofit and nonpartisan organization dedicated to improving elections in North Carolina.
743 W. Johnson St.
Suite E
Raleigh, NC 27603
919.839.1200