It is puzzling to me why there’s not bipartisan opposition to public financing of candidates in North Carolina. One would presume that progressives don’t want their tax dollars to fund conservatives just as much as conservatives don’t want their tax dollars to help fund progressives. Nope.
From Gary Robertson of the Associated Press:
North Carolina’s voluntary public campaign-financing program would expand to cover more statewide elected positions through legislation approved Tuesday by a Senate committee.
Up to five additional members of the Council of State — attorney general, treasurer, secretary of state and commissioners of agriculture and labor — could accept fundraising restrictions in 2012 in exchange for receiving taxpayer money to run their campaigns.
Daren Bakst, JLF’s legal and regulatory policy analyst, also poses serious questions about whether North Carolina’s law is constitutional in light of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision.
