Brian Balfour of the Civitas Institute had a great op-ed in the Durham Herald-Sun. There are many critical points that he makes, including the identification of what the academic research shows on taxpayer financing of elections, as opposed to the “gut-feelings” of the program’s proponents. He also makes this great point:
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“Making this corrupt system even more difficult to defend is that it may very well increase the influence of special interests. Certain organizations, such as unions, could simply mine their membership rolls for the numerous small donations required to qualify their chosen candidate for the taxpayer-provided campaign funds.”
“Therefore, a limited amount of special interest money could leverage hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars toward their chosen candidate’s campaign. In the end, the candidate is still beholden to the union, and the union has more dollars to funnel to 527 groups to advocate for their chosen candidate. The result is that even more money is entered into the campaign process, special interest influence is magnified, and taxpayers suffer more erosion of their liberty.”
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Also, by the way, taxpayer financing of elections is unconstitutional.
