{"id":11412,"date":"2018-07-09T09:45:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T13:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=11412"},"modified":"2018-07-09T09:41:55","modified_gmt":"2018-07-09T13:41:55","slug":"what-we-learned-about-public-campaign-financing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=11412","title":{"rendered":"What We Learned About Public Campaign Financing"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco.<\/em><\/p>\n

This past primary saw the first use of public campaign financing in local elections in Maryland.\u00a0 Many people both inside and outside Montgomery County have been watching the system\u2019s performance.\u00a0 For the benefit of both MoCo policy makers as well as those in other jurisdictions who are considering adoption of this system, here are the things we have learned about public financing.<\/p>\n

Public financing was heavily used and helped attract a record number of candidates.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thirty-three candidates enrolled in public financing.\u00a0 Four of them ran for Executive, nineteen ran for Council At-Large and ten ran in Council Districts.\u00a0 Of these candidates, twenty-three qualified for matching funds \u2013 all four Executive candidates, twelve Council At-Large candidates and seven District candidates.\u00a0 That\u2019s a 70% qualification rate.\u00a0 MoCo has never had as many candidates for county office as it had this year \u2013 not even close! \u2013 and public financing was partially responsible for that.\u00a0 Several candidates told your author that they would not have considered running if public financing had not been available.<\/p>\n

Candidates in public financing can win.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of ten county-level seats, six \u2013 Council District 3, Council District 4 and all four Council At-Large seats \u2013 were won by candidates in public financing.\u00a0 Three of these winners were incumbents and three were not.\u00a0 The County Executive seat may also be won by a publicly financed candidate pending absentee and provisional ballot counts.<\/p>\n

But did public financing change the outcome?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The three incumbents who used public financing and won did not need the system to win.\u00a0 Of the three non-incumbents who won while using it, we predicted<\/a> that two \u2013 Council At-Large candidates Evan Glass and Will Jawando \u2013 would be strong contenders more than a year ago because they had run credible races before.\u00a0 The third non-incumbent public financing winner, Council At-Large candidate Gabe Albornoz, would have at least been a viable candidate in the traditional system because of his endorsement by the Washington Post and his networks in the party, the community and among Ike Leggett supporters.\u00a0 The leading Executive candidate in public financing, Marc Elrich, has long<\/a> outperformed<\/a> his fundraising and benefited from significant outside progressive support.\u00a0 In no instance can we point to public financing as THE reason a candidate who was otherwise not viable became a winner.\u00a0 In fact, if all candidates had used the traditional system, it\u2019s possible that the exact same group of them would have won.<\/p>\n

It was cheaper than expected.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The county set aside $11 million in its public election fund on the assumption that there would be many new candidates and that a lot of them would max out in public matching funds.\u00a0 Yes, there were a lot of candidates, but only four \u2013 Council At-Large candidates Evan Glass and Will Jawando, Council District 1 candidate Reggie Oldak and Council District 3 incumbent Sidney Katz \u2013 maxed out.\u00a0 Two more Council At-Large candidates \u2013 incumbent Hans Riemer and Bill Conway \u2013 came close and County Executive candidate Marc Elrich was not far off.\u00a0 As a result, the county spent $4 million in matching funds distributions through the end of June<\/a> \u2013 waaaaaay less than the $11 million in the public election fund.<\/p>\n

Incumbents did well in the system.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In his 2014 race, Council At-Large incumbent Hans Riemer raised $271,817<\/a>.\u00a0 Four years later in public financing, Riemer raised $326,866 through June<\/a> \u2013 a 20% improvement.\u00a0 Council District 3 incumbent Sidney Katz raised $135,589 in 2014.\u00a0 Four years later in public financing, Katz raised $176,265 through June \u2013 a 30% improvement.\u00a0 Council incumbent Marc Elrich, who ran for Executive, raised $851,602 through June<\/a>, a higher total than he had raised before and enough to let him compete with a multi-million-dollar self-funder.\u00a0 Fellow council incumbent George Leventhal, who also ran for Executive, had decent fundraising with $628,426<\/a> but his campaign was hurt by front-loaded spending and few endorsements.<\/p>\n

The system did not produce credible challenges to district incumbents.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Council District incumbents Craig Rice, Nancy Navarro and Tom Hucker blew out little-known challengers.\u00a0 In the latter case, Hucker\u2019s challenger actually qualified for matching funds and sent out two negative mail pieces but was still wiped out by 45 points in early and election day voting<\/a>.\u00a0 In the only competitive district race, District 3 incumbent Sidney Katz used public financing to defeat Ben Shnider, who ran in the traditional system.\u00a0 The lack of competitiveness in district races is a long-standing trend<\/a> that public financing has not changed.<\/p>\n

Public financing was administratively challenging.<\/strong><\/p>\n

While no users of public financing told your author that they regretted participating in the system, all of them complained about its cumbersome administrative requirements<\/a> \u2013 especially showing proof of residency to obtain matching funds and dealing with filing issues in the state\u2019s software.\u00a0 The State Board of Elections has every right to verify in-county residency before authorizing release of public funds, but the system\u2019s ease of use should be reviewed by the next County Council.<\/p>\n

Raising money in public financing takes a long time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We wrote about this<\/a> during the campaign.\u00a0 Because the system relies on a large volume of small contributions, contacting those MANY small contributors takes a long time to pile up serious cash.\u00a0 Late entrants into public financing like County Executive candidate Rose Krasnow and Council At-Large candidate Jill Ortman-Fouse were unable to match competitors in fundraising who also used public financing.\u00a0 The lesson here is if you are going to use this system, start running early.<\/p>\n

Self-funders did not overwhelm the system.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the County Executive race, public financing candidate Marc Elrich fought self-funding David Blair, who gave his campaign at least $2.9 million<\/a>, to a virtual draw.\u00a0 In Council District 1, Meredith Wellington \u2013 who gave her campaign $78,000 \u2013 is on her way to finishing fourth behind public financing candidates Ana Sol Gutierrez and Reggie Oldak.\u00a0 Self-funding was not a major factor in the Council At-Large race.<\/p>\n

Public financing did not stop interest group participation in the election.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Interest groups may not have been able to contribute large individual, corporate and PAC checks to candidates but they still played.\u00a0 They spent significant amounts on TV and mail in the Executive race and some progressive groups canvassed for their candidates.\u00a0 Just as importantly, institutional endorsements<\/a> mattered as much as ever.\u00a0 Marc Elrich could not have come close in the Executive race without them.\u00a0 District 1 candidate Ana Sol Gutierrez benefited from them to finish second even though she had lackluster fundraising.\u00a0 District 3 candidate Ben Shnider had many and came closer to winning than most people initially believed. \u00a0And all four winning Council At-Large candidates (incumbent Hans Riemer, Will Jawando, Evan Glass and Gabe Albornoz) had lots of them.\u00a0 Candidates who lacked interest group support, like Executive candidates Rose Krasnow and George Leventhal and Council At-Large candidates Hoan Dang, Bill Conway and Jill Ortman-Fouse did not come close to winning.\u00a0 Savvy interest groups can exploit public financing by helping candidates of their choice raise money inside the system while using their own money to finance PAC and independent expenditure activity.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a prediction: all of the above will happen again.<\/p>\n

Most women using public financing did not win.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Much has been said about the next County Council having just one female member.\u00a0 District 4 incumbent Nancy Navarro used public financing to defeat a no-name challenger.\u00a0 But no other woman in public financing came that close to winning.\u00a0 In early and election day voting<\/a>, Gutierrez trailed traditionally financed candidate Andrew Friedson in District 1 by seven points.\u00a0 Krasnow finished third in the Executive race by fourteen points.\u00a0 And the highest-performing woman in the Council At-Large race was Marilyn Balcombe, who used traditional financing to finish fifth.<\/p>\n

There are numerous reasons to explain these finishes.\u00a0 Gutierrez\u2019s primary voter base was in Wheaton, which is outside District 1.\u00a0 Krasnow and Council At-Large candidate Jill Ortman-Fouse raised money quickly but started too late to raise a lot of it.\u00a0 Council At-Large candidates Brandy Brooks and Danielle Meitiv were unknown in county political circles before running so they could not tap into preexisting donor networks.\u00a0 We believe that female candidates can succeed in the system, but we admit that this cycle presents little evidence of that.<\/p>\n

Public financing amplified the influence of the Democratic Crescent.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We have written before about the Democratic Crescent<\/a>, the region of the county stretching along the Beltway from Takoma Park in the east to Cabin John and Bethesda in the West.\u00a0 This area has a disproportionate number of Democratic activists, voters and political contributors and sent Jamie Raskin to Congress<\/a> two years ago.\u00a0 Back in March, we found that the Crescent accounted for a majority of public financing contributions to Executive and Council At-Large candidates<\/a> and waaaaay out-paced contributions from Upcounty.\u00a0 If we were to repeat that exercise today, we have little reason to believe that the result would be significantly different.<\/p>\n

The impact of Crescent participation was clearly seen in the Council At-Large results.\u00a0 Riemer, Glass and Albornoz live in the Crescent.\u00a0 Jawando lives outside it but much of his base in Legislative District 20 is inside it.\u00a0 All four oppose M-83<\/a>, the Upcounty highway demanded by many in Clarksburg.<\/p>\n

There has only been one At-Large Council Member from Upcounty since the current council structure was created in 1990.\u00a0 That person \u2013 Gaithersburg resident Mike Subin \u2013 has an asterisk since he was originally elected in District 2 in 1986<\/a> and shifted to an at-large seat when the new structure was put in place four years later.\u00a0 And so the trend of not electing Upcounty residents to at-large seats was well established prior to this year<\/a> but we wonder if public financing will lock it in.<\/p>\n

We have spent $4 million on public financing so far.\u00a0 Was it worth it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We laid out the pluses and minuses above.\u00a0 Readers, this question is for you to answer!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco. This past primary saw the first use of public campaign financing in local elections in Maryland.\u00a0 Many people both inside and outside Montgomery County have been watching the system\u2019s performance.\u00a0 For the benefit of both MoCo policy makers as well as those in other jurisdictions who are considering adoption of this system, … Continue reading What We Learned About Public Campaign Financing<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[151,138],"tags":[1545,1541,1908],"class_list":["post-11412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adam-pagnucco","category-campaign-finance","tag-adam-pagnucco","tag-campaign-finance","tag-public-campaign-financing"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-2Y4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11412"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11414,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11412\/revisions\/11414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}