Last week I blogged about Chapel Hill’s ill-advised entry into providing taxpayer funds for mayoral and town council candidates. The town is the first in the state to do so. This policy should be appalling to folks of all political stripes, who are now forced to help fund candidates they oppose.
Imagine my pleasant surprise in reading today’s News & Observer story that indicates opposition — that’s right, opposition — to taxpayer funding of campaigns from many of the people who have filed to run for mayor and council. When it comes to the mayoral race, four people have filed so far and only one, Mark Kleinschmidt, is planning to take public money.
So far, three others have filed to run for mayor, and all three have opposed public financing.
Kevin Wolff has twice lost to retiring Mayor Kevin Foy, criticizing the public financing plan along the way. First-term council member Matt Czajkowski has clashed with his colleagues over the program. And last week Augustus Cho, former chairman of the Orange County Republican Party, criticized Rich for opting into the program in the midst of a bad economy.
Bad economy or not, forcing citizens to fund candidates they would never support is bad policy all the way around. Regardless, the push is on in the state legislature to expand public funding to other cities, but advocates who oppose it are pushing back. Carolina Journal’s Colleen Calvani writes about the effort here.
Bradley Smith, chairman of the Center for Competitive Politics and former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, explains the dangerous attraction of taxpayer-financed elections in this Carolina Journal Radio interview with Mitch Kokai.
