del.icio.us(In 2002, John Bonifaz took the lead in defending Massachusetts' clean elections law, while Secretary Galvin did nothing.
Phil Lopes is the progressive House Minority Leader in Arizona. He ran as a clean elections candidate when he was first elected in 2002, and again for both of his re-election campaigns since then. Arizona's public financing law has had a major impact on his and other campaigns. -- Ofer Inbar)
I've worked in public health all of my career, health care and health care reform; I want to create a single payer system. I'm a very liberal Democrat, and Tucson is a liberal place, but Arizona is pretty conservative. I hoped that by getting elected, I could not just be a voice for liberalism, but also influence what Republicans in this state do. By the time 2002 rolled around I was semi-retired and the kids were grown. I'd been wanting to run for office since I was in high school, and now it was time. In 2004 I got elected House minority leader, which gives me a bully pulpit to keep talking about health care. That's my passion.
Talking to the Voters
I had run for state house once before, in 1992, and lost. One of the things I hated most was asking people for money, so I supported the clean elections law when it was on the ballot. The law went into effect with the 2000 election. In 2002, clean elections made my decision much easier, because I knew what I had to do: talk to voters. That's much better than having to ask people for money.
Under the Arizona law, a candidate for state house must collect 220 contributions of $5 each from registered voters in the district. You submit all of the contribution forms to the secretary of state, who verifies a sample of the contributors to make sure they're legitimate, and certifies you. Then you turn that certification in to the Clean Elections agency, and they send you a check: about $12,000 for the primary, and about $18,000 for the general election. Whatever you don't spend, you must return to the state.
That's one of the real attractions of it: Once I raised my 220 contributions in June, I never had to ask for money again. All I did from then on, was talk to voters about the issues - knowing that all my opponents had the same resources as I did.
Clean elections candidates also must agree not to spend more than they're given. In 2004, David Burnell Smith ran as a clean elections candidate but overspent by $6,000, and he was removed from office. He went to court, but the court upheld his removal.
Freedom from Lobbyists
If a candidate running traditionally (with private financing -Ofer) outspends you, you get matching money from Clean Elections. People who run traditional get most of their money from PACs and lobbyists, and public perception is that those who give money get special attention. That perception will never change. With clean elections you don't have that. And because those lobbyists have not given you money, they have no expectation that they'll get extra attention; that gives me as a legislator an enormous sense of freedom. The people who I'm beholden to are the ones who voted for me and the ones who gave me $5.
Collection of the fives also forces you to interact with people: you've gotta ask them for $5. The first time I ran, I thought I'd carry around my nominating petitions and ask people for $5, but that didn't work; people were willing to sign, but when I asked for $5, they asked "who are you?" I asked for advice, and the suggestion was: ask people you know to ask people they know. That worked. That's changing a little, as people are getting more familiar with how clean elections works, they're more willing to give $5. In 2004 I had no opposition, and when you have no opposition, you get no clean elections money. Nevertheless, I still collected the fives and filed my application. I wanted to stay in touch with my supporters and build the list of people who would give me fives next time.
Debates
Another thing you have to agree to as a clean elections candidate, is to participate in at least one debate in the primary, and one debate in the general election. These debates are sponsored by the state's Clean Elections agency. Although traditional candidates don't have to, they're encouraged to participate in these debates, and there's a public expectation that they will. There is a lot of press coverage of the debates, and if a candidate doesn't debate, there's a lot of press coverage of that too.
Clean elections is not about getting certain kinds of people elected, it's about getting special interests out of the game. Bills have been introduced every year to weaken clean elections, but none have succeeded so far. Since Clean elections, we've had some people with more extreme views elected to office. We've also had more females and more minorities getting elected. It's hard to tell whether these are a result of clean elections or things that would have happened anyway, but one thing is clear: A person of modest means can now run for office.
