Yesterday the N.C. Board of Elections acknowledged what JLF Director of Legal and Regulatory Studies Daren Bakst has been pointing out for a long time — that Chapel Hill’s policy of giving taxpayer “rescue” funds to local candidates whose opponents privately raise a certain level of money is unsustainable following the U.S. Supreme Court’s summer ruling in Arizona Free Enterprise Club’s Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett. Yesterday the elections board met and told Chapel Hill NOT to give out the so-called “rescue funds.” Chapel Hill had been operating a pilot program approved by a previous legislature that supporters had hoped to see expand to other municipalities. Taxpayer financing of candidates is clearly a misguided attempt that punishes candidates who raise money from their supporters and forces taxpayers of all political stripes to help fund candidates they oppose and for whom they would never vote. Daren Bakst discusses the Arizona case, and its implications for North Carolina, in this recent interview.