Cone’s right. Yesterday’s N&R editorial did put the smackdown on Greensboro Citizens for Free Elections. It must be a really bad idea. And the last thing any city needs to do is make elections more complicated, and excessive reporting requirements would do just that.
What I love is the way GCFE touts their system as “voluntary,” meaning candidates can opt out. But “if a publicly financed candidate is outspent by a candidate not using the system, he/she is eligible for ‘matching funds’ that match the spending of the candidate not participating in public financing.”
So a candidate opting out of system gets to “voluntarily” have his funds matched by a candidate participating in public financing. Just a win-win for everybody, right?
