The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for February 3, 2023

Today’s Links
Articles & Resources:
New York State Public Campaign Finance Board – Program Overview
New York State Public Campaign Finance Board – Candidate & Committee Services
City & State NY – What you need to know about New York’s new statewide public campaign finance program
Albany Times Union – New matching funds for state elections touted at New York City launch event
Minnesota Post – Why some want to make public spending on political campaigns in Minnesota less like Menards rebates

Groups Taking Action:
Brennan Center for Justice,  Public Citizen, Common Cause, List of organizations working on public financing at Reclaim the American Dream, Open Democracy, Clean Elections MN

Today’s Script:  (Variations occur with audio due to editing for time)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

Yesterday, we discussed Seattle’s Democracy Vouchers program, a concept under statewide consideration in Minnesota & New Hampshire. But there’s another style of citizen-funded elections just implemented in New York State after the midterms.

New York’s plan matches donations of $5 to $250 dollars for statewide or legislative offices. How much of a match depends on the office and the donation amount, and varies from a 6-1 match to 12-1. But to claim it, candidates must first prove they are viable by raising matchable donations from a certain number of voters. For State Assembly, that’s only 75 voters and $6,000. But for Governor, that’s 5,000 matchable contributions and $500,000. These amounts are calculated separately for the state primary and the general election.

Statewide offices have another requirement. Candidates for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General or State Comptroller must participate in an hour-long debate, and to qualify, you must have raised and spent 5% of the state’s match of $175,000. If you don’t, you could lose your matching funds.

As for WHO can donate, New York’s plan prohibits corporations, unions, political committees, LLCs, partnerships & SuperPACs from making donations to candidates receiving matching funds.

The plan is optional for candidates, but candidates using small donation systems in other states have been successful in touting their independence from Big Money influence.
Find resources and groups taking action at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl.

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