Group urges public campaign financing

Fans of public financing for political campaigns were told they have to work hard to build a groundswell of support to get their proposals through the Legislature and Congress.

“We’re going to minimize the influence of special interests by taking away their money,” said John Rauh, president of Americans for Campaign Finance Reform. His organization supports voluntary public funding of presidential and congressional campaigns, which it estimates would cost about $1.8 billion, or $6 per person in a country with a population of 300 million.

“We can’t guarantee we’ll get the best leaders, but we’ll have a better chance,” Rauh told a crowd gathered Thursday night in Gonzaga University Law School’s Barbieri Courtroom.

Maine and Arizona already have voluntary public funding for their state elections, and Washington state is trying to follow suit with either legislative proposals or a citizens initiative, said Craig Salins, executive director of Washington Public Campaigns.

Candidates might willingly volunteer to avoid spending so much of their time raising money, he said.

“The system selects people good at raising money,” Sahlins said. “We need people who are best at representing the public.”

But supporters may have to watch their rhetoric when demanding clean elections or denouncing corruption or “special interests,” two legislators said.

“I don’t think corruption is rife. Not all lobbyists are bad,” said state Sen. Chris Marr , D-Spokane. Marr set a state record for spending in a Washington Senate campaign last year and was a major campaign donor before he was a candidate.

While he’s aware of the influence of money, he thinks knocking on 12,000 doors in his district was as important as the $560,000 he spent.

Talking about cleaning up elections to the party that holds the power because it won the last election is risky, said Rep. Timm Ormsby, D-Spokane. Anyone who calls or writes a legislator is lobbying, and everyone is a “special interest.”

Money for public campaign funding will have to compete with requests for more money for social services or health care, Ormsby added. “That’s going to be a massive fight.”