Public Financing

Howard County Executive Charles I. Ecker's underdog candidacy for governor ran into a new obstacle yesterday as he conceded that his campaign would not raise enough money to qualify for public financing.Ecker vowed to continue his struggle to wrest the Republican nomination over the heavily favored Ellen R. Sauerbrey."Sure, I've got a serious chance -- with or without the financing," Ecker said.Neither Ecker nor campaign officials would say precisely how much his campaign had raised or how far short of their goals it had fallen.

The Sun's March 13 editorial rightly criticizes the ''flawed big-money system," but stops short of recommending specific reforms.Real campaign reform would involve a fundamental change in our existing system. Public financing of elections is the most effective way of removing the influence of money from the political process.To equate huge financial contributions with freedom of speech, as the Supreme Court has done, is a perversion of the term. What the present system amounts to is freedom of speech for the wealthy, while the rest of us are essentially shut out of the process.

Moved by the apparent success of Maryland's first experiment in publicly financed elections, Democratic and Republican lawmakers -- including the majority leaders of both houses -- say they want to reauthorize public financing for the next gubernatorial election in 1998.Senate Majority Leader Clarence W. Blount, a Baltimore Democrat who has agreed to co-sponsor a public financing bill with Minority Leader John A. Cade, explained: "I don't like elections where the outcome depends on how much money you have, or where who has the most money wins."

The House of Delegates yesterday narrowly defeated a bill aimed at curbing the regulatory powers of state bureaucrats.On a 68-65 vote, the delegates rejected a measure that would have made it harder for the state to adopt rules stricter than those of the federal government.Opponents said House Bill 401 could have affected everything from vehicle-emission inspections to health-care regulations.House Majority Leader John A. Hurson, a Montgomery County Democrat, described the bill as a "lawyer's dream," predicting that its vague language would be used to tie up every new rule proposed.

WASHINGTON -- Of all the bad ideas in the Republican budget proposals -- and there are plenty -- the least defensible may be their plan to kill the public financing of presidential election campaigns.The system was put in place 20 years ago as a response to Watergate and the abuses that had developed in the financing of campaigns -- most particularly the influence enjoyed by a few fat cats who financed candidates with multimillion-dollar contributions.Now, in the name of deficit reduction, the Republicans intend to scuttle the system -- and open the door once again to another generation of influence-seekers.

Candidates for governor in 1998 and thereafter would have the option of running their campaigns with money contributed by taxpayers under legislation unanimously approved by the General Assembly yesterday.Last year, Republican Ellen R. Sauerbrey came within fewer than 6,000 votes of victory in a heavily Democratic state thanks to a campaign supported by more than $1 million in public funds. It was Maryland's first experience with public financing.The state Senate and House of Delegates both voted unanimously yesterday to continue and expand that system.

This year's race for governor shows why the political big boys delayed public campaign financing for 20 years -- and why the reformers were so eager to test it.Three of the seven major Democratic and Republican candidates are taking the public money, agreeing to a spending limit and working to build a broader base of financial support, all required by law. Each of the three has added quality to the debate and energy to the campaign.One of them might actually win.Even before taking full advantage of the additional $100,000 in public money, Delegate Ellen R. Sauerbrey was doubling her standing in the polls over the summer even as her front-running rival, Rep. Helen Delich Bentley, slipped.

Supporters of Republican gubernatorial candidate Ellen R. Sauerbrey who want to give money to her campaign are getting the most unexpected response in politics: No thanks.Mrs. Sauerbrey is the first candidate in Maryland to run a general election campaign using public financing, and sometime next week she will receive a check for $997,800 in state funds.But under the law, Mrs. Sauerbrey can spend no more than that on her campaign.That means she is suggesting would-be contributors look elsewhere.

FROM Rethinking Schools, a Milwaukee publication that describes itself as "an urban educational journal," comes an ingenious suggestion.If you must have a new stadium, Rethinking Schools says editorially, and if you refuse to spend more money improving public education, then use the new stadium for schooling."

THERE'S a $3 million jackpot in Maryland's treasury waiting to be tapped, but only candidates for governor need apply.For the first time since the tax checkoff for public financing of political campaigns was authorized in the post-Watergate reform frenzy, the state will hand out money to gubernatorial candidates and their running mates for lieutenant governor who agree to legally imposed spending limits.The money has been held in escrow, gathering interest for more than 20 years because succeeding General Assemblys couldn't agree on how to allocate the funds.

The need for publicly financed campaigns for seats in the General Assembly has seldom been greater. With record sums likely to be spent on Senate and House of Delegates races next year, the influence of big donations on the legislature never more obvious, and some high-profile Maryland politicians under criminal investigation, one might assume support among legislators would be overwhelming. But the chronically delusional are not so easily swayed. Public financing died late in the last legislative session through a combination of tactical error (a Senate bill that was fatally amended by opponents on the floor)

What if Cheney is yellow? On Sept. 10, 2001, America was a strong and secure country that stood brave and firm for its laws and treaties, the ones that protect all of us, including our armed forces. The next day, according to Dick Cheney's battle plan, we turned into a nation of cowards, abandoning the red, white and blue for some kind of foul-smelling yellow flag of shame. Suddenly, some in power were screaming like frightened children: "We've been attacked! To heck with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and foreign treaties!

Efforts to reduce the influence of big-money special interests in state elections suffered a setback late last week with the decision of a federal judge to throw out Connecticut's landmark campaign finance law on the grounds it put third-party candidates at a disadvantage. The ruling has significant implications for Maryland, where legislators have been seriously considering a similar approach to publicly financed state-level political campaigns for the past five years. The proposal has won support in the House of Delegates and has gotten as far as the floor of the Maryland Senate - until a procedural move late in this year's legislative session forced it back into committee.

A proposal for public financing of General Assembly campaigns appears dead this year after a fiery debate in the Maryland Senate over the idea of using taxpayer dollars for political activities. Senators made several changes to the bill, argued over its necessity and complained that the full implications were unclear before voting, 27-20, Wednesday to send the bill back to committee. The procedural move means that further work on the bill is unlikely this legislative session, which ends in less than three weeks.

Sen. President Thomas V. Mike Miller lent his hefty political capital yesterday to a cause he has long opposed: public campaign financing. Proponents of the plan "beat me down," Miller, a Democrat who represents Calvert and Prince George's counties, told reporters as he announced his support of legislation that would make Maryland among the handful of states that offer public money to candidates for the legislature. He also said he decided to support a plan that will now work its way through the Assembly in the final five weeks of the legislative session in part because of how much last year's federal campaigns cost.

Prospects for public financing of General Assembly campaigns should get a major boost today, when Sen. President Thomas V. Mike Miller is expected to announce his support for a plan similar to one that failed in his chamber by a single vote in 2007, when he opposed it. A previous opponent of public campaign financing, Miller lent his support to this year's version after good-government advocates agreed that traditional limits on campaign contributions should...

Chicago - As he hosted a gala celebration for some of his earliest and most loyal financial supporters last night, President-elect Barack Obama's aides released new information showing the magnitude of their feat: They raised nearly $1 billion for his campaign and other election-related efforts. The stunning total also includes already recorded and estimated fundraising for his campaign, national convention, transition and coming inauguration. That sets a new and dramatically higher bar for future presidential candidates, radically changing the financial definition of a serious bid for the White House.

Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign has collected a record-shattering $640 million, but only two of his staff members are among the 15 highest-paid workers in the general election, according to campaign finance records. The rest, including the three highest-paid, are employed by Sen. John McCain. The Obama campaign, despite having more than 700 field offices across the country, compared with fewer than 400 for McCain, has spent slightly less on rent than its counterpart. And even though Obama has raised $400 million more than McCain, he has spent less on fundraising consultants.

Obama's financing is genuinely public There has been much discussion about campaign finance reform on The Baltimore Sun's editorial pages in the last several days ("Buying elections," Oct. 24). The editors even asked if readers thought our system of campaign financing needed reform, and 62 percent said "yes" ("What Maryland thinks," Oct. 24). This comes as Sen. Barack Obama sets records for donations to his campaign without any financing from the government ("Obama goes the private route to all-time leader in fundraising," Oct. 19)

Last month, Sen. Barack Obama took in an amazing $150 million in campaign contributions - a number that increased his fundraising total to $600 million for the primaries and general election, topping the combined amount raised by President Bush and Democrat John Kerry in 2004. It's an extraordinary achievement, but one that offers sad evidence of the futility of a decades-long effort to limit the influence of money in American politics. Sen. John McCain, Mr. Obama's Republican opponent, chose to participate in the public financing program, which gave him $84 million to spend from Sept.