Azi Paybarah

Incumbents and Your Dollars: An un-level playing field

New York's campaign finance system is supposed to be a model for the nation-- the public financing program gives participating candidates for city office $4 for every $1 they raise from small donors. It is supposed to keep "special interest" money out of local politics, meaning fairer, more democratic elections. Candidates participating in the Campaign Finance Board's (CFB) program also agree to spending limits and filing detailed disclosure statements throughout the campaign season of exactly who is giving, how much, and where the money is going. Even candidates opting out of the program that want to run for city office have to disclose this.

The system however is not capable of handling self-financing candidates like Mayor Michael Bloomberg who outspend his opponent by a ratio of 13:1. For Candidates like Bloomberg there is no spending limit, and unfortunately, a limit to how much the CFB can fund his opponent.

The system fails to keep candidates facing billionaire opponents competitive yet for another group of candidates, the system might be a bit too generous. Incumbents, who often only face nominal opposition, have certainly used the program to their advantage. In citywide general election races a total of 20 incumbents got $1,478,386 in matching funds. Challengers who ran against them got $696,630. None of the incumbents who participated in the program lost in the last election cycle.

I only have public numbers to work with but my math can't be that off. Incumbents got three quarters of a million dollars more than their opponents in the general election under a system that uses public money to try to level the playing field.

One possible remedy is to index the matching funds heading to an incumbent with that of their opponent. Instead of amplifying an incumbent's fundraising advantage, indexing would send tax dollars where they are needed, not just wanted. Mess? Maybe. Better than the status quo? Definitely.

While City lawmakers look to tweak the public financing system and other localities push for public financing, they should keep the lessons of the '05 NYC elections in mind.

Azi Paybarah: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 7:29 AM, Nov 28, 2005 in Democracy | Fiscal Responsibility | New York
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