Wednesday, Feb. 03, 2010

Raleigh wants election option

The city backs a state bill to let cities add public campaign financing.

The Capital City wants in on the chance to enact a public financing option for local political candidates.

That's the message the City Council sent the N.C. General Assembly earlier this month, when it approved a resolution supporting a bill pending in the state Senate that would give municipalities the authority to add a public campaign finance option.

No specific form of public campaign finance is being considered. The resolution essentially tells the legislature that Raleigh would like the authority to consider such an option in the future.

"It seems like it ought to be an option," said Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker, who requested the resolution. "Raleigh may or may not pursue it, but the city should have the authority to do so if it wants."

John Odom was the only council member to vote against the resolution - despite having used the public finance option when he ran unsuccessfully for state Insurance Commissioner.

Odom said he needed more specifics.

"The problem is that there were no details," he said. "I have used it, but I would like more details. It worked for me when I used it, because I started my campaign late. But there were a lot of things I thought I should have been able to do that you couldn't."

Such a bill passed the state House last year, and awaits action in a Senate committee. House Bill 120 would allow cities and towns to use taxpayers' dollars to finance campaigns - similar to publicly funded judicial races and other statewide offices - provided the state Board of Elections has the resources to supervise them.

The idea behind public financing is to remove the influence of big money and special interests in local elections. Opponents of the bill say it's wrong to force taxpayers to fund campaigns they don't support.

The state legislature also authorized the town of Chapel Hill to launch a pilot public financing program in its 2009 mayor and council races.

The program, which became a controversial campaign issue, limited candidates to small donations from individuals until they reached a certain amount.

After they reached that amount, they could tap into public money.

Meeker said he thought the Chapel Hill program was successful, and he suggested that he would support a similar program in Raleigh.

"Raleigh has had a problem with certain special interests paying a lot of money," he said.

If the bill passes and Raleigh experiments with a public financing option, the city would have to hold at least one public hearing about the program before adopting it, according to the bill.