{"id":109787,"date":"2015-12-27T19:57:38","date_gmt":"2015-12-28T02:57:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=109787"},"modified":"2015-12-28T11:30:31","modified_gmt":"2015-12-28T18:30:31","slug":"what-you-need-to-know-about-public-financing-of-elections-in-las-cruces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2015\/12\/what-you-need-to-know-about-public-financing-of-elections-in-las-cruces\/","title":{"rendered":"What you need to know about public financing of elections in Las Cruces"},"content":{"rendered":"

As government\u00a0officials and activists across the United States struggle with how to combat dark money and increase voter turnout, the City of Las Cruces appears poised to implement<\/a> a public-financing system for municipal elections beginning in\u00a02017.<\/p>\n

\""We<\/a>

Pictures of Money \/ Creative Commons<\/p>

Policymakers in Las Cruces appear poised to approve a public-financing system that would likely go live in 2017, when City Council Districts 3, 5, and 6 and a municipal judgeship are up for grabs.\u00a0(photo cc info<\/a>)<\/p><\/div>\n

The proposed system<\/a>, which would be voluntary, aims to level the playing field and reduce the influence of money<\/a> on city elections.<\/p>\n

NMPolitics.net has taken a hard look in recent months at whether public financing accomplishes those goals. The bottom line: Some studies in other states have found positive benefits of public financing, but two New Mexico cities with relatively new public-financing systems have not.<\/p>\n

And with dark money’s influence growing, it’s not clear that public financing combats the impact\u00a0political action committees and other third-party groups have on elections.<\/p>\n

Here are some FAQs to help you better understand the issue.<\/p>\n

Q: What are the details of the Las Cruces proposal?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A:<\/strong>\u00a0Under the public-financing proposal<\/a>\u00a0from Common Cause New Mexico, the City of Las Cruces\u00a0would place $2 per resident into a public-financing fund each year, which would create a budget\u00a0of at least $667,000 during a four-year election cycle.<\/p>\n

Those who choose to sign up and qualify for public financing would face limits on contribution sizes \u2014 $200 for mayoral candidates and $100 for council candidates. In exchange they would receive $4 in public funds for every $1 they raise through donations.<\/p>\n

A mayoral candidate would need to collect 100 donations of between $5 and $100 from registered voters in the city \u2014 and at least $5,000 total \u2014 to qualify. Council candidates would need to collect 25 donations from registered voters in their district \u2014 and at least $1,000 total \u2014 to qualify.<\/p>\n

Expenditures would also be capped.<\/p>\n

Q: How do matching funds help?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A:<\/strong> The 4-1 match Common Cause is proposing would have helped\u00a0level the playing field in the 2014 mayoral race in Santa Fe, but it wouldn’t have fully offset\u00a0the effect of spending by independent groups.<\/p>\n

All three mayoral candidates in Santa Fe received $60,000 in public funds that year. But independent groups spent another $64,000 to help elect the winning candidate, Javier Gonzales. A 4-1 match would have meant the candidates could have received and spent as much as $120,000 apiece instead of $60,000<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In other words, a 4-1 match would have meant Gonzales and supporting groups would have outspent the other candidates by a smaller ratio — 3-2 instead of 2-1.<\/p>\n

A more level playing field? Yes. But not a totally level field.<\/p>\n

Q: Does public financing work in other states?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A:<\/strong>\u00a0Studies in other\u00a0states show that public financing has allowed a more diverse group of candidates and increased voter turnout.\u00a0In Connecticut, which implemented a public financing system for some statewide offices in 2008, public financing has not only allowed more people to run for office but\u00a0helped a more diverse set of candidates get elected, according to a study<\/a> by the public-policy organization D\u0113mos.<\/p>\n

The report also indicated that lobbyist influence began\u00a0to decline after the implementation of public financing, concluding, \u201cConnecticut\u2019s experience shows that public financing is a fundamental part of a stronger democracy that is more responsive to constituents, rather than big donor and special interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile,\u00a0a 2008 study<\/a> from Stanford University on public-financing programs in Maine and Arizona found that \u201cprograms in both states significantly increased competition in districts where challengers accepted public funding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q: Does public financing work in other cities in New Mexico?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A:<\/strong>\u00a0Albuquerque implemented a public-financing\u00a0system in 2009. Santa Fe did it in 2012. A September NMPolitics.net review<\/a> of data from those cities suggests it\u2019s too soon to know whether they\u2019re experiencing trends like those found in other states.<\/p>\n

What’s clear is that the systems in those cities need improvement. The majority of city councilors in Santa Fe rejected<\/a> a matching-fund proposal earlier this year that was designed to improve that city\u2019s\u00a0public financing system, with some of them complaining that\u00a0public financing can\u2019t keep up with PAC spending.<\/p>\n

Santa Fe\u2019s public financing system worked well in 2012, when PACs didn\u2019t become heavily involved,\u00a0Common Cause\u2019s State Chair Jim Harrington wrote in a column published by the Albuquerque Journal in February<\/a>.\u00a0But in 2014, the system \u201cproved no match for the well-heeled professionals who entered the fray on the side of one of the three publicly financed candidates\u2026\u00a0forming PACs that outspent every candidate and swarmed the city with paid door-knockers and glossy negative mailers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The victory by the candidate backed by PACs\u00a0represents \u201cnot a failure of public financing but rather a failed attempt to do it on the cheap,\u201d Harrington wrote in arguing that\u00a0a matching-funds provision be added to Santa Fe’s public financing law.<\/p>\n

Albuquerque, like Santa Fe, used to have a matching-funds provision in its public-financing law, but the U.S. Supreme Court found systems like those two cities\u2019\u00a0unconstitutional in 2011<\/a>. That\u00a0because they provided additional public funds to candidates in\u00a0direct response to spending by privately funded opponents.<\/p>\n

Systems that tie public money\u00a0to a candidate\u2019s own fundraising, rather an opponent\u2019s, remain\u00a0legal. Common Cause is pushing to add constitutionally allowable matching-funds provisions to the public-financing laws\u00a0in Albuquerque and Santa Fe in addition to building matching funds\u00a0into the system it’s\u00a0proposing in Las Cruces.<\/p>\n

Q: What do policymakers in Las Cruces say?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A:<\/strong>\u00a0With outside spending on elections in Las Cruces increasing<\/a>, the majority of members of the Las Cruces City Council appear poised to vote in favor of implementing a public financing system.<\/p>\n

“I favor the public financing of elections, period,” Councilor Gill Sorg has told NMPolitics.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mayor Ken Miyagishima has said<\/a> he’s “always been a supporter of public financing” and asked that the proposal be voted on by the council\u00a0in the near future.<\/p>\n

Only Councilor Ceil Levatino has expressed much skepticism about the proposal.\u00a0She questions the cost and the concept of taxpayers funding elections.<\/p>\n

Q: When would Las Cruces see its first publicly financed election?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A:<\/strong>\u00a0The system would likely go live in 2017, when City Council districts 3, 5, and 6 and a\u00a0municipal judgeship are up for grabs. There’s not another mayoral race until 2019.<\/p>\n

A prior version of this posting incorrectly stated that the proposed budget for public financing in Las Cruces was $667,000 per year, when that’s actually the estimated cost per four-year election cycle.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Policymakers in Las Cruces appear poised to approve a public-financing system that would likely go live in 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54908,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[145,214,705],"class_list":["post-109787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-las-cruces","tag-las-cruces-election","tag-money-in-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}