Advocates tout public campaign financing poll numbers
Advocates for using public money to finance political campaigns in Maryland (our coverage here and here) released poll data yesterday which they said definitively shows support for this measure among the general public and among many top campaign contributors.
The data, part of a larger poll from Gonzales Research & Marketing Strategies of more than 800 registered voters across the state conducted in October, indicate strong public support for the measure, according to folks at Progressive Maryland, who commissioned the poll and strongly support public financing.
Advocates also believe the bill has the support of frequent campaign contributors. A poll of more than 100 frequent donors to Democrats in Maryland conducted for the Public Campaign Action Fund, a national organization that promotes campaign finance reform, found that nearly two thirds said they would support the bill.
While the poll does not have enough respondents to comprise a solid statistical sample, David Donnelly, national campaigns director for the Fund, said it was enough to show that at least many would prefer not to give if public financing were available.
Comments
Several years ago, there was a Public Campaign Finance Commission in Maryland. Charged with finding a way to implement this incumbent protection plan, they did.
During the process, the University of Baltimore offered the commission ten questions on their annual poll. Large numbers thought that public financing was a good idea. The public largely thought that using money to influence elected officials was undesirable. The tenth question for the commission was less esoteric, more focused. It asked the respondent if they were willing to pay higher taxes to finance Maryland political campaigns. There is nothing equivocal about the question. There was nothing equivocal about the response. Nearly eighty percent responded with an emphatic NO!
One of my fondest memories of the Commission was when, without any disclosure, it was discovered that one of the witnesses for public financing (using your money to support your political opponent's campaign) was the spouse of one of the commissioners.
Posted by: Bruce Robinson | February 28, 2008 6:52 PM