Mimi Marziani, a fellow with the Brennan Center, has this article saying that programs for public funding for candidates are worthwhile, whether they have extra public funds for publicly-funded candidates with high-spending privately-funded opponents or not.
This topic is relevant because the U.S. Supreme Court recently put a temporary hold on the part of Arizona public funding that furnishes extra public funding in those circumstances. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
I’m not saying I advocate it, but why don’t they create a system similar to what Major League Baseball has? I.e. a ‘luxury tax’ for campaigns that raise/spend more than X amount, to be distributed to the campaign that doesn’t spend/raise Y amount? Taxes from the funds raised/spent in the last quarter could be pooled into a pool for future candidates, and taxes from the funds raised/spent in the early quarters could be distributed to various candidates to spend at in the final months of the campaign.