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    Campaign Finance Reform: Experience of Two States that Offered Full Public Financing for Political Candidates

    May 2010

    United States Government Accountability Office

    GAO-10-390 Campaign Finance Reform: Experiences of Two States That Offered Full Public Funding for Political Candidates The 2000 elections in Maine and Arizona were the first in the nation's history where candidates seeking state legislative seats had the option to fully fund their campaigns with public monies. In 2003, GAO reviewed the public financing programs in Maine and Arizona and found the programs' goals were to (1) increase electoral competition; (2) increase voter choice; (3) curb increases in campaign costs; (4) reduce interest group influence; and (5) increase voter participation. This report: (1) provides data on candidate participation and (2) describes changes in five goals of Maine's and Arizona's programs in the 2000 through 2008 elections and the extent to which changes could be attributed to the programs. To address its objectives, GAO analyzed available data about candidate participation, election outcomes, and campaign spending for the 1996 through 2008 legislative elections in both states, reviewed studies, and interviewed 22 candidates and 10 interest group officials selected to reflect a range of views. The GAO's 2010 report concludes that the benefits supposedly derived from taxpayer financed campaigns do not occur in any way that can be shown by generally accepted techniques of analysis.

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    Meet the New Legislature, Same as the Old Legislature

    March 2010

    Center for Competitive Politics

    This report measures changes in the voting patterns of legislators who served in the Connecticut General Assembly during the 2007 - 08 session and accepted taxpayer dollars for their 2008 re-election campaign. By identifying significant interest groups and comparing their legislative priorities to voting patterns, any noticeable change in voting since the beginning of the Citizens' Election Program (CEP) would potentially provide evidence that freeing legislators from private, voluntary contributions has indeed made legislators more responsive to citizens and less responsive to so-called "special interests." Based on the study's findings, there is no evidence to support the contention that providing taxpayer dollars to legislative candidates reduces the likelihood that a legislator will vote with an interest group.

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    Fairly Flawed: Analysis of the 2009 Fair Elections Now Act

    July 2009

    Center for Competitive Politics

    This CCP study examines proposed legislation in Congress (H.R. 1826 and S. 752), the "Fair Elections Now Act," which aims to fund congressional races with taxpayer subsidies. The analysis uses data from states with similar taxpayer financing programs and academic studies to determine whether the proposed program can meet the stated goals in the legislation. It concludes that the program will be both prohibitively expensive and unlikely to meet its stated goals.

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