Legislative News from the Senate Minority Leader...

 

This week The Fair Elections Act (Senate Bill 1037), of which I was a co-sponsor, had a hearing in the Senate State Affairs committee.  It failed on a party line vote of 2-7.  This bill would have been revolutionary for politics.  It would have implemented a voluntary public campaign financing system for Idaho.  In this system, candidates could volunteer to utilize this public source of funding for a statewide or legislative campaign after they collected 150 individual $5 dollar donations.  Candidates would then receive an adequate amount to run a campaign, but would not be able to take any private contributions from political action committees.  Further, any money the candidate would collect from individual public donors would then be placed into the general campaign fund. 
 
Opponents to the bill argued that Idaho's current campaign finance system, which permits private contributions, is not inherently corrupt and works just fine.  They insisted that their votes are not for sale, regardless of how much money an organization or person contributes to their campaign.   As one who runs campaigns by this current system, I agree with that.  Idaho has elected many honorable public officials who make great strides to vote in the best interest of their constituency.  However, in the wake of the national political scandals, the public is rapidly losing confidence in all its elected officials, and consequently elected officials are becoming more distant from their constituency.  With members of the US Congress engaged in raising campaign money on full-time basis, they are increasingly becoming beholden to the special interests that fund their campaigns.  As laboratories for change, individual states are in a unique position to restore faith in our government.   Implementing this system in Idaho would drastically change the way we do business and would provide our Federal Congress with a model. 

 

The intention behind Senate Bill 1037 was not to indicate that we have a corrupt system in Idaho;  the idea was that there is a better system available. One benefit of this system is that public financing returns more time to candidates to personally reach out to voters and encourages a more direct dialogue between elected officials and voters. It enhances the candidate pool, especially for new candidates who may need the extra support and encouragement to run.  And last but not least, this system feeds the "market place of ideas" by giving candidates the tools to get their messages out.

 

Naturally many people ask how this system is funded. In addition to voluntary contributions from the public, Senate Bill 1037 supplemented this program by an additional 10% surcharge on civil penalties. This would give the fund roughly $ 4-7 million annually. It would not be funded by tax dollars.  With the element of public funding, some have labeled similar legislation, "welfare for politicians."  I argue that many of our public institutions and services are funded by public dollars: roads, public safety, schools, research grants etc.  This system would permit the public to own the campaign process by protecting our republic from being taken over by special interests.
        
This system is relatively new, but it is working well in other states.   Ten states have this type of financing for various elected positions, but Arizona and Maine have this funding available for all their statewide and legislative candidates.  A decade has passed since the introduction of this funding in Maine and over eighty percent of their candidates use this system.  After only five years, forty-three percent of Arizona's candidates chose to use this system of funding. It is used equally by both Republican and Democratic parties and sometimes third parties have utilized this funding too.
 
Public campaign financing in these states is not perfect, and the states are challenged to iron out those flaws.  Yet this system is ensuring clean money,  protecting clean elections and restoring more confidence in our leaders than any other existing campaign finance system.  This system supports our core democratic values of a responsive and a responsible government.  I will continue to pursue this for Idaho.
 
As always, I welcome any suggestions, or comments you have to offer.  It is my honor to serve District 25.  I can be reached by calling (208) 332-1000 or toll-free 1-800-626-0471, via email at stennett@senate.idaho.gov, or by mail to P.O. Box 83720, Boise, ID 83720.