A paean to public campaign financing

Jonathan

Jul 30, 2024 — 1 min read

Another important factor in the NYC mayoral campaign is public campaign financing. As you probably know, the U.S. "Supreme" Court has ruled to give money predominant influence in our politics. But there still is room for various levels of government to amplify the voices of non-oligarchs. The NYC campaign financing system is a good example.

If a New Yorker contributes $100 to a candidate, the government matches is 8x. So, the campaign gets $900. This mechanism lets mayoral, city council and other candidates to fund their campaigns without having to depend on, say, big real estate developers and others who can give much larger amounts. There are also limits on the size of donations.

This is not a perfect system. It amplifies voices of people who can give contributions up to $250 and does nothing for the poorest NYers. I am very curious how Seattle's voucher program is working. There are other issues with what is needed to qualify for the matching funds. But, overall, I think it has had good effects. NYS has a similar program and I encourage people to take advantage of it for both the current state legislative races and the 2025 municipal elections.

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A paean to Ranked Choice Voting

Some Supreme Court Justices consider corruption to be a bad thing

Constitutional Amendments Whose Time Has Come