Opinion ID: 767873
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Cumulative Effect: Coerciveness

Text: 97 We now step back and look at the Maine public funding/matching funds/contribution limits system as a whole to see if the cumulative effect can be said to be impermissibly coercive. We have previously expressed that a state need not be completely neutral on the matter of public financing of elections and that a public funding scheme need not achieve an exact balance between benefits and detriments. See Vote Choice, 4 F.3d at 39 ([W]e suspect that very few campaign financing schemes ever achieve perfect equipoise.). In fact, a voluntary campaign finance scheme must rely on incentives for participation, which, by definition, means structuring the scheme so that participation is usually the rational choice. Gable, 142 F.3d at 949. Nevertheless, there is a point at which regulatory incentives stray beyond the pale, creating disparities so profound that they become impermissibly coercive. Vote Choice, 4 F.3d at 38, 39 (Coerced compliance with any fundraising caps and other eligibility requirements would raise serious, perhaps fatal, objections to a system . . . .). The question before us is whether the tilt rises to the level of a coercive penalty. 98 In determining whether the net advantage to a participating candidate is so great as to be impermissibly coercive, we look both to cases where coerciveness has been found and those where the funding and contribution limits system has been upheld. In Wilkinson, a district court enjoined the enforcement of contribution limits that were lower, by a ratio of five-to-one, for non-participating candidates than participating candidates because the limits were so low for non-participating candidates that they constituted an unacceptable penalty for foregoing public financing. See Wilkinson, 876 F. Supp. at 929. 33 In Shrink Missouri Government PAC v. Maupin, 71 F.3d 1422 (8th Cir. 1995), the Eighth Circuit held that a ban on contributions from political action committees and other organizations to privately funded candidates was unconstitutional because it prevented privately funded candidates from gaining access to funding sources to which they would be entitled but for the choice to eschew public funding and its expenditure limitations. See id. at 1425-26. The statutes at issue in both of these cases, however, created much harsher repercussions for non-participating candidates than the MCEA. 99 On the other hand, statutes creating an array of benefits even more enticing to candidates than the MCEA have been upheld. In Vote Choice, Rhode Island's public funding system was upheld when it disbursed matching funds for private donations up to a given ceiling, it waived the expenditure ceiling to the extent that a non-participating candidate exceeded it, it allowed a participant to raise donations in increments double that allowed for a non-participant, and it granted a participant free air time on community television stations. See Vote Choice, 4 F.3d at 38-40. In Gable, the court upheld Kentucky's arrangement, which granted participants a two-to-one match for all private dollars raised up to a certain expenditure limit and released the limit and continued to match funds at the two-to-one ratio after non-participating opponents collected more than the expenditure limit. See Gable, 142 F.3d at 947-49. In Rosenstiel, the Eighth Circuit upheld Minnesota's public funding system, which disbursed public subsidies for up to half of the expenditure ceiling, allowed taxpayer refunds of up to $50 for donations to participating candidates but not for donations to non-participating candidates, and completely released participants from expenditure limits after a non-participating opponent raised more than a certain percentage of the limit. See Rosenstiel, 101 F.2d at 1546-57. 100 Turning to Maine's system, we first observe that the benefits for a participating candidate are accompanied by significant burdens. The benefits to the candidate include the release from the rigors of fundraising, the assurance that contributors will not have an opportunity to seek special access, and the avoidance of any appearance of corruption. More peripheral benefits include the ability to bypass a small number of additional reporting requirements, see 21-A M.R.S.A. § 1017(3-B), and the opportunity to be free of the reduced contribution limits imposed on private contributions. 101 In order to gain these benefits, however, the candidate must go through the paces of demonstrating public support by obtaining seed money contributions as well as a substantial number of $5 qualifying contributions. Additional detriments include the limited amount of public funding granted in the initial disbursement; the uncertainty of whether and when additional funds will be received based on an opponent's fundraising; the ultimate cap on matching funds; and the foreclosure of the option of pursuing any private campaign funding or spending any monies above those disbursed by the Commission. 102 With regard to the contribution limits, we do not believe that they serve as a coercive penalty for non-participating candidates. Until the privately funded candidate reaches the funding level equivalent to the initial disbursement granted to his participating opponent, the contribution limits may serve to the disadvantage of the privately funded candidate. Nevertheless, once the privately funded candidate exceeds that initial disbursement level of his opponent and until he reaches the level at which his opponent's matching funds run out, the contribution limits work to the detriment of both candidates because the less the privately funded candidate raises the less his participating opponent receives in matching funds. 103 In conclusion, the incentives for a Maine candidate, as the district court characterized them, are hardly overwhelming. Despite appellants' contention that a participating candidate cedes nothing in exchange for public funding, there are in fact significant encumbrances on participating candidates. The constraints on a publicly funded candidate, we think, would give significant pause to a candidate considering his options. In fact, appellant Representative Elaine Fuller has attested that she will not seek certification and appellant Senator Beverly Daggett has not yet decided. We also take note of the Commission figures that, as of February 8, halfway through the qualifying period, 27.5% of 142 legislative candidates have filed declarations of intent to seek public funding; on the other hand, at least 38, or roughly 26.7%, of the candidates have received contributions or made expenditures in excess of seed money limitations, signaling a desire not to seek certification. Thus, we hold that Maine's public financing scheme provides a roughly proportionate mix of benefits and detriments to candidates seeking public funding, such that it does not burden the First Amendment rights of candidates or contributors. 104 We add a final call for vigilant monitoring. In this case we necessarily regard appellants' claims as facial challenges to the public funding system and contribution limits. Although we indicate no opinion as to the success that an as-applied challenge would meet in the future, that door remains open. See Citizens for Responsible Gov't State Political Action Comm. v. Buckley, 60 F. Supp. 2d 1066, 1073 (D. Colo. 1999) (An 'as applied' challenge . . . asserts that the statute is unconstitutional as applied to a particular plaintiff's speech activity, even though the statute may be valid as applied to other parties.). Experience, after all, will be our best teacher.