Public Financing of Political Campaigns: For and Against

The New York Times and the Daily News (via editorial board member Bill Hammond) offer competing views as to whether New York State should adopt a public campaign financing system.

The Times editorial calls a publicly financed system of state political campaigns “the linchpin of the entire reform effort. Without it, there is almost no hope for the infusion of fresh faces the system so desperately needs.” The Buffalo News offers a similar view (behind a pay wall, unfortunately.)

On the Daily News editorial page, Bill Hammond argues that public financing of campaigns is “an idea whose time has not come.”  His view is that last week’s arrests “far from bolstering the case for this potentially costly change — are powerful evidence that Albany simply can’t be trusted to do it right.”

Hammond goes on to offer Gov. Cuomo some advice:

“Instead of rewarding bad-behaving politicians with the public’s money, [Gov. Cuomo] should focus on instilling a culture of compliance in Albany. He should push through tighter restrictions on how candidates raise and spend campaign funds — with maximum disclosure — and create a new enforcement body with the independence and the juice to hold the pols accountable.

He should get behind a proposal from Manhattan Assemblyman Micah Kellner, which would give local prosecutors the same anticorruption tools being put to such good use by Bharara.

He should empower Attorney General Eric Schneiderman as a superprosecutor with both the mandate and the authority go after crooked politicians — a step that Cuomo himself backed when he was AG.

Maybe, someday, Albany lawmakers could graduate to public financing. But only after showing they can follow rules.”