Plan would ensure a truly level playing field
It’s heartening to know that all of the candidates for the only contested seat on the Santa Fe City Council are participating in the city’s public financing system. And it’s reassuring to know that they are focusing their campaigns on the voters in District 1, not on the large contributors and special interests that so often dominate elections at the state and national levels. They can do this because of the wisdom of Santa Fe voters who voted to enact a carefully structured system.
Once council candidates raise $5 contributions from at least 150 voters in their district, they qualify for a $15,000 stipend with which to run their campaign. When they get it, they agree not to spend any more, an arrangement that levels the playing field and limits the skyrocketing amount of money spent on campaigns.
The “catch” comes when one of the candidates is not publicly financed and can greatly outspend the others, or when an outside independent group buys advertising for its chosen one and tilts the playing field in that direction. Now the publicly financed candidates are limited to $15,000. The resulting “tilt” was created by recent court decision that struck down the system’s mechanism to restore at least a measure of competitiveness by allocating more public funds to the outspent candidate.
At Common Cause, we hope that, with all candidates taking public financing in Santa Fe, the playing field really will be level. But we’re not holding our breath. There’s always the specter of last-minute independent PACs entering the fray, as they did in the mayor’s race in 2014. That’s why we’ve been working with the Santa Fe Ethics and Campaign Review Board for a remedy that’s constitutional. This plan would allow candidates to raise additional small contributions of no more than $100 that the city would match at a 4-1 rate (e.g. each candidate would receive $400 for every $100 raised.) The amount of “matching funds” is capped at 200 percent of the initial distribution for any race. That way, if they wanted to fight back, candidates could at least have the opportunity to raise more money (within limits) and remain competitive. The City Council is now considering this option. We hope they will adopt it to truly level the playing field.
HEATHER FERGUSON
Campaign manager, Common Cause New Mexico