The Kingston Common Council has passed a sponsoring resolution urging New York State Legislators to pass the Clean Money Clean Elections bill that would reduce big-money's influence in NY State politics by replacing private campaign contributions with “Clean” public funds.
Introduced in both the Senate (S3440-A) and Assembly (A3453-A), the bill covers races for Governor, the Senate, Assembly, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, and Comptroller. To conform with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that says money is equal to speech, candidates can run with Clean money or not. If they opt to run with private money, they cannot have any public money.
The sponsoring resolution was submitted to the Kingston Common Council by New York Citizens for Clean Elections (NYCCE). Richard Cooper, Kingston resident and Vice President of NYCCE, said he is “very pleased the Common Council passed this resolution because it sends a strong signal to our state legislators that their constituents are very concerned about money's influence in the political process and want to stop it.”
In passing the resolution, Kingston joins other municipalities across the state who have similarly urged state legislators to pass Clean Elections, including Ithaca, Schenectady, Woodstock, Saugerties, the Town of Olive, the Village of New Paltz, Rensselaerville, and Thompkins County.
With a campaign for an Assembly seat alone costing as much as $500,000, candidates for state office must rely on very wealthy contributors to compete effectively, Cooper said. “Once elected, they must keep dialing for dollars if they expect to run and win again. Which means they need to keep their big contributors in mind when passing laws and regulations that affect all of us.”
A big benefit Clean Elections would have for Kingston, Cooper said, is that “state legislators who previously voted for tax breaks and subsidies to big contributors in return for their campaign contributions would be freed from that burden.” In effect, he explained, the billions of dollars now going to tax breaks and subsidies would be available to satisfy state and local budgets for schools, healthcare, the environment, upkeep of bridges and roads, and so on. As more money is funneled back to local governments, local taxes could be reduced.
Other advantages, Cooper said, are that Clean Elections would lower the overall costs of campaigns and candidates would have a level the playing field. At the present time, he noted, incumbents in the State Legislature have a tremendous advantage. Over 95% of them are elected year after year with little or no competition from challengers.
Clean Elections would give candidates who qualify for Clean Elections funds a real chance to compete on their ideas, ability and integrity. “And,” Cooper said, ‘those who get elected with Clean money could work full time on the peoples' agenda and needs and not have to be bothered with fundraising.”
To qualify for Clean money, candidates must refuse all private money, including their own. They must also demonstrate an ability to mount a serious campaign by getting a certain number of signatures accompanied by a $5 donation from within their district before the primary. The number depends on the office they are running for. A run for the Assembly requires 400, a run for Governor requires 15,000. Once qualified, Clean candidates are forbidden to raise or spend any private money on their campaigns.
There are caps on the amount of money Clean Elections candidates get. But each gets enough to run a competitive campaign and each gets the same amount. If an opponent running with private money exceeds the amount of the first cap by 10%, the Clean candidate gets a dollar-for-dollar match up to 3 times the first cap. For example, the first cap for an Assembly race is $75,000. Depending on what the privately funded opponent spends, the Clean candidate could get $75,000 plus three times that amount, which comes to $300,000.
Cooper said that although a Clean candidate may not get as much money as a privately funded opponent, he or she could use the opponent's unwillingness to “run Clean” to advantage by saying, “I am beholden only to voters.”
Clean Elections would be funded by one tenth of one percent of the state's general fund. This would cost New Yorkers between $3 and $5 each per election cycle. Irene Miller, President of NYCCE, called that “one of the very best investments tax payers could make, because when our tax dollars no longer go for corporate tax breaks and subsidies, our overall taxes could be reduced.”
Clean Elections is “not pie in the sky,” Miller said. “Just since 1996, five states have already enacted it.” Maine was the first, she said. Since then, Arizona, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Vermont have followed suit. And 40 other states have grass-roots movements to do the same. “Maine and Arizona have the strongest Clean Elections laws, cover the most offices, and are the most successful,” she explained, “and New York's Clean Elections legislation is in some ways stronger than theirs.”
Maine, with more than two-thirds of its legislature now Clean, recently passed universal healthcare, which it had unsuccessfully tried to do for decades. It has also passed a very strong environmental law. Like Maine, a majority of the Arizona legislature also runs Clean. In both states, Miller said, “Democrats and Republicans alike run with Clean money. And that includes quite a few legislators who had fought against passage of Clean Elections but who now say they would not go back to the old system.” Both states also have more women, people of color, and other minority groups running for public office now.
The fact that five states have passed Clean Elections laws in so few years “shows that when people are committed to getting money out of politics, it can happen,” Miller said, “but, it will happen only when people rise up and demand it. Well over 60 of our NY State legislators have signed on to the Clean Elections bill, but the mainstream media and quite a few incumbent legislators do not want it. That means organizations, as well as individuals, must come together to focus creatively on passing it. That is how the citizens of Maine and Arizona became so successful. And we New Yorkers can do that, too.” The website for New York Citizens for Clean Elections is www.nycce.org.