Center for
GovernmentalStudies

May 19, 2006

Campaign Finance eBulletin

Program Areas
Political ReformCampaign Finance
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Comprehensive CGS Report Provides
Analysis of State and Local
Public Campaign Financing
Programs
The Center for Governmental Studies (CGS) justreleased Keeping It Clean: Public Financing in
American Elections, the first comprehensive effortto analyze and evaluate the strengths andweaknesses of state and local public campaign
financing systems in the United States. Keeping It Clean
concludes that public campaign financing can resolve manyof the campaign finance and electoral problems thatcurrently plague the political process.
It recommends that state and local jurisdictions:••Board ofDirectors•

Rocco C. Siciliano
ChairmanTracy Westen
Vice Chairman & CEORobert Stern
President
Aileen Adams
Art Agnos
Rebecca Avila
Elizabeth Daley
Linda Douglass
Allen I. Freehling
Jay T. Harris
Aileen C. Hernandez
Robert M. Hertzberg
Stephen D. Rountree•••••

Adopt public campaign financing systems to combat
non-competitive campaigns, reduce special interest
influence and increase voter confidence;
Provide participating candidates with additional
funding when confronted with high-spending
opponents and independent expenditures;
Ensure that programs are securely and adequately
funded as a whole and for individual candidates overthe course of several elections;
Provide candidates with diminished amounts of publicfunding when running unopposed or against weak
opponents;
Encourage new and former candidates to participate
in public financing systems;
Develop public education programs to explain thebenefits of public campaign financing programs;
Control the use of separate fundraising committees
and entities by candidates; and,Make local public financing laws compatible with statelaw.

Keeping It Clean finds that public campaign financing

Dan Schnur
Harold M. Williams

encourages more candidates, more competition, more voter
participation and less influence-peddling. Public financing:•••••

Helps women, people of color, and new candidates
run in elections;
Reduces perceptions of wealthy and special interestcontributor influence;
Frees candidates from fundraising pressures;
Diminishes funding disparities among candidates;
Encourages more voters to participate in elections bylowering contribution thresholds and increasing voter
education.

With a spate of political scandals at the federal, state andlocal levels, the trend toward more jurisdictions adopting
public financing is growing. Connecticut has recentlyadopted a new public financing system. New Jersey hasrecommended expansion of a pilot legislative program (withmodifications). And earlier this week, the California Nurses
Association submitted signatures for a "Clean Money"
initiative that will likely be on the November 2006 California
ballot. On the local level, both the Portland (OR) city council
and voters in Albuquerque (NM) approved full publicfinancing for city elections in 2005.
Focusing on state and local programs, Keeping It Clean
examines all forms of public financing, including full publicfinancing ("clean money"), partial public financing("matching funds"), tax credits, tax deductions, politicalparty financing and free media resources to candidates. Italso makes specific recommendations to improve theeffectiveness of public financing programs.
Keeping it Clean is part the CGS series on Public Financing inAmerican Elections. Earlier reports in the series are available
on the CGS website, www.cgs.org.
This project is funded by generous grants from Carnegie
Corporation of New York. The views in the study do notnecessarily reflect the opinion of Carnegie Corporation, andit does not take responsibility for any of the statements orviews in the report.
For more information about public financing, please contact
Steve Levin, Political Reform Project Director, (310)4706590, ext. 115.

CGS Mission
The Center for Governmental Studies (CGS) creates
innovative political and media solutions to help individuals
participate more effectively in their communities andgovernments.
CGS uses research, advocacy, information technology andeducation to improve the fairness of governmental policies
and processes, empower the underserved to participate
more effectively in their communities, improve
communication between voters and candidates for office,and help implement effective public policy reforms.
Learn more about CGS on our website at www.cgs.org.

Center for Governmental Studies
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Los Angeles, CA 90064-2184(310) 470-6590(310) 475-3752 fax
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