Poll: Marylanders want public campaign financing, despite budget woes
A Gonzales poll released this morning by Progressive Maryland, a left-leaning advocacy group, shows that a majority of Marylanders want public campaign financing, something state lawmakers came close to passing last legislative session.
According to the survey of 833 registered voters, 77 percent believe that large political contributions have a corrupting influence on state lawmakers and worry that the money prevents them from from tackling issues such as rising energy costs and protecting the Chesapeake Bay.
Seventy percent of respondents favor using a limited amount of public money to pay for political campaigns. What's more, 63 percent of the respondents say that they would like to see public campaign financing even in the face of a state budget deficit.
The poll "reaffirms this is still an important issue," said Ryan O'Donnell of Common Cause, which, like Progressive Maryland, has pushed for campaign reform for years.
With the unexpected support last year of Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, a Calvert County Democrat, a reform measure almost passed that chamber last year. (The House of Delegates has traditionally been more receptive to reform efforts.)
Miller signed on as a co-sponsor largely because the bill always provided for an increase in private contribution amounts. Sen. Paul G. Pinsky, a Prince George's County Democrat, said Wednesday that Miller has not committed to co-sponsoring legislation again next year.
O'Donnell said next year's proposal would likely be similar to the one that failed this year when a "poisoned" amendment was added by Sen. Bobby A. Zirkin, a Baltimore County Democrat.
The initiative would be paid for through voluntary $5 income tax checkoff, rather than general tax dollars. Sean Dobson of Progressive Maryland said he envisions a "large pilot program" to begin in 2014 and provide about $5 million to candidates who choose to participate.
Comments
Term limits and public financing are the only way to fix politics on both a state and national level.
Eliminate all other forms of campaign cash and then you flush out the cash's influence.
Posted by: jay | October 14, 2009 12:51 PM
Breaking: Poll by a progressive group supports a progressive position!
All that campaign finance reforms have done throughout the years is make it tough for third parties and lesser known candidates to enter races. And we are to trust that a political duopoly would allocate campaign money in a non-political way?
Posted by: LibertyMage | October 15, 2009 1:40 AM
Has anyone bothered to read the survey questions in the poll? They are leading and conclusory to the point of ridiculousness. I'm not sure this report would pass an introductory survey methodology course in any college in the country. Not only does Progressive Maryland lose credibility due to the absolute lack of methodological rigor, but they also show a lack of any grounding in reality by continuing to push for this at a time when mental health facilities are closing, state employees are being laid off and fuloughed, and our unemployment fund is teetering on the edge.
Posted by: Skeptical | October 15, 2009 8:44 AM
Does it matter? Without term limits, these politicians will find a way around any campaign monetary woes.
Also that voluntary $5 income tax checkoff was once $1. I guess the dollar is shrinking.
Posted by: Carole | October 15, 2009 9:37 AM
Dear “Skeptical”,
First, why not use your own name? Why lurk in the cyber shadows? I sign my own name to this blog post below. Second, as for the poll’s methodology, Gonzales is Maryland’s pre-eminent political pollster. Saying Gonzales’s methodology is bad is like saying Ray Lewis does a bad job at middle linebacker. Third, a big reason why our state lacks enough money to pay for basic government services is that electricity monopolies like Constellation/BGE and other special-interest campaign contributors use their undue influence in Annapolis to starve the state government of revenue – for example, by blocking better corporate tax enforcement through “combined reporting”. When lawmakers in 1999 voted to deregulate our state’s electricity system, they not only handed over free of charge to Constellation billions of dollars worth of generating plants built up by ratepayers and taxpayers, lawmakers even PAID Constellation another half billion of our taxdollars to take ownership of the plants (so-called “stranded costs”). Public funding of campaign is the best way to ensure that profligate waste of our taxdollars like that never happens again. This reform makes it possible to pass laws that focus on the needs of all the voters, not just the banks, insurance companies, and utility monopolies that write big campaign checks to politicians
Best regards,
Sean Dobson, Executive Director
Progressive Maryland
www.ProgressiveMaryland.org
Posted by: Sean Dobson | October 19, 2009 1:01 PM
Mr. Dobson, a careful reading of your arguments in response to "Skeptical" can bring readers to but one conclusion:
Sean Dobson advocates for the removal of all progressive members of the Maryland General Assembly.
I hope your success at this exceeds everyone's expectations.
Posted by: Bruce Robinson | October 22, 2009 2:48 PM