“OPEN TIME” COMMENTS TO THE SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL
ON THE MARIN CLEAN ELECTIONS CAMPAIGN FOR “CLEAN” CITY COUNCIL ELECTIONS
JUNE 16, 2008

I am here to address the San Rafael City Council about the need to reform our city’s campaign finance system, and to urge you to seriously consider bringing Clean Election reform here.

The members of Marin Clean Elections respectfully requests that the City Council agendize the item as soon as possible. We urge you to form a committee or deputize staff to study this important campaign finance reform with an eye to enacting an ordinance that would implement a pilot program for the upcoming 2009 election cycle. For our part, Marin Clean Elections will support your commitment to open government and civic engagement through an energetic public education campaign. Over the next 6 months, we will be reaching out to dozens of neighborhood associations, community groups, service clubs and other groups, seeking the insights and feedback and providing that information to the Council. We are eager to cooperate with City Council members and staff and lend our experience and expertise to this effort.

The idea behind Clean Elections (or ‘Full Public Campaign Financing’) is simple: participating candidates voluntarily reject all private campaign money and agree not spend their own money. In exchange, they receive enough public funds to run effective campaigns.

Here are five good reasons to consider Clean Money for San Rafael:

1. Campaign costs are kept in check. We’ve seen campaign costs here in San Rafael triple in recent years, from an average of $15K to over $45K per candidate.
2. Reduce the frequency and influence of Independent Expenditures
3. Elections become more competitive because more candidates can run for office. In six of the last seven San Rafael city council races, there have been NO serious challengers.
4. More women and people of color have a fair opportunity to participate in our electoral and policy processes – as volunteers, supporters, candidates and elected officials!
5. Fifth and finally, Clean Elections reduce the potentially corrupting influence of campaign contributions. Candidates are accountable to the public, not developers, public employee unions, and other deep-pocket campaign donors

Let me tell you how Clean Elections work.

Candidates can choose to try and qualify for Clean Money public funds, or opt to follow the traditional system of raising private campaign donations. To qualify as a “Clean” or “participating” candidate, an individual must raise a required number of $5 contributions and support signatures from registered voters in the city – generally between one half percent and 1 percent. In San Rafael, that would mean that a candidate for City Council would need to get qualifying contributions from about 250 people under a typical system.

A candidate who qualifies receives a set base amount of money to run his or her campaign – roughly the average dollar amount spent by those seeking that office in recent elections, although slightly less is usually needed because candidates don’t have to spend any money to raise more money. Clean Elections help hold down the overall cost of campaigns, because the money given to qualified candidates goes directly to getting their message to voters, not to further fundraising.

If the candidate is outspent by a traditionally funded opponent, he or she receives a dollar for dollar match, up to a cap.

Independent expenditure committee mailers (“IE’s”) and negative attack ads concern us all. For the record, Clean Elections is the most effective reform to reduce the frequency and influence of IEs. The system provides participating candidates with additional funding – fair fight funds – if they are targeted by independent expenditures that benefit opposing candidates.

While independent expenditures have exploded by more than 6,000 percent since 2001 in California, independent expenditures against “Clean” legislative candidates in Arizona actually dropped over 58 percent during the same period. And in Portland, Oregon’s 2006 and 2008 city council elections, matching funds and IE response funds from their Clean Elections system were never triggered.

So here are my concerns as a citizen:
I want to see competitive elections but often our city councilmembers run unopposed. When they do have a challenger, it’s rarely a fair match, because the challenger is usually less well known and can’t raise a fraction of the money an incumbent can.

Clean Elections encourage competition because if they aren’t confronted by huge fundraising tasks, more people are encouraged to run. In fact, in Maine, almost 70 percent of women candidates who ran “clean” said that the availability of public funding was a key factor in their decision to run for office.

In Arizona, the number of people willing to run for the state legislature has increased by about 20%, providing voters with greater choice, including more women, people of color, and people of average income, as opposed to wealthy people.

I think it’s important to have a city council that mirrors the diversity of voices and interests, concerns and positions here in our city. San Rafael is a highly diverse city – ethnically, economically, and geographically. Clean Elections will open doors to leadership for people who have strong community connections, but not connections to money and power.

Clean Elections is also a shot in the arm for democracy. Communities that have them have seen civic participation and voter turnout increase year after year. I recently learned that although the Canal District is home to almost a quarter of the population, very few of the residents are registered to vote, and very few of the registered voters who live there actually get out and vote. Having a Clean election system in place would change that dramatically, because folks who feel their vote actually matters actually vote. And voter turnout has gone up almost 35% in Arizona since 2000.

Coincidence? I don’t think so.

Over the last 11 years, Clean full publicly financed campaign systems have been established successfully in several states and an increasing number of municipalities. The programs are popular with voters and candidates alike, with more women and minorities running for office. Nine out of 11 Arizona statewide offices are held by Clean candidates, and 85% of Maine’s Legislature is Cleanly elected. In Albuquerque, NM and Portland, OR’s most recent city council elections, over half of candidates chose to run “Clean”. Just recently, Santa Fe passed Clean Elections for their city elections.

Clean Elections’ success is proven by all these states and cities

Clean Elections is an investment that rewards candidates and communities, and it will reward San Rafael handsomely, at a cost of less than $2 a year per person. That’s a small investment for huge returns to our community and our democracy. San Rafael can lead the way for California, and make reform history.