PRC chairman qualifies for public financing

Public Regulation Commission Chairman Jason Marks is the first candidate to qualify for public financing this year.

Marks, a Democrat from Albuquerque, filed notice of more than 400 $5 contributions with the Secretary of State’s Office last week, according to a news release from his campaign. That allows him to receive public financing under the voluntary system.

“Public financing of elections is the best way yet devised to remove the undue influence money on has our democratic system,” Marks said in the release. “Right now, qualifying for public financing means that our PRC re-election campaign can continue to focus on the concerns of voters and not the dash for cash.”

We’ll see how the system works this year. Two PRC candidates from Doña Ana County – Democrat E. Shirley Baca and Republican D. Kent Evans – used public financing in 2006. Both were optimistic about the goal of allowing them to focus more on voters and less on contributions from the wealthy and powerful. But both said there were problems with the system that made it difficult, in practicality, to compete, in part because of the timing of payouts and the reporting deadlines.

Both ended up losing their primary races.

Since then, the state has expanded the public financing system to include statewide judicial positions. Will the public financing system work better this year? Time will tell.

Update, 2:10 p.m.

It has been pointed out to me that when the Legislature expanded the public-financing system to include judicial races in 2007, it also made some changes designed to fix the logistical problems Evans and Baca encountered in 2006. So there’s reason to believe the system will work better this year.

Update, 2:45 p.m.

Democrat Stephanie DuBois e-mailed me to remind me she ran for a PRC seat with public financing in 2006 and did win her primary.

“There are many glitches in the system, but for the most part I think public money is the way to go,” she said, adding that after each election there should be a review to determine what can be improved in the system.