On May 7, three Democratic members of Congress introduced bills in each House to change public funding for presidential candidates. The bills don’t have numbers yet, but this press release describes the bills. Current law requires presidential candidates to raise $5,000 in small donations from each of 20 states. The bill would increase that to $25,000 from each of 20 states.
The bill’s sponsors are U.S. Senator Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and U.S. House members Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and David Price (D-N.C.). They introduced almost the same bill in 2012 but it did not advance.
Minor party and independent presidential candidates who have received primary season public funding include Sonia Johnson of the Citizens Party in 1984, Lenora Fulani of the New Alliance Party in 1988 and 1992, John Hagelin of the Natural Law Party, Pat Buchanan of the Reform Party, Ralph Nader in 2000, 2004, and 2008, Jill Stein in 2012, and Gary Johnson in 2012. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
Harry Browne 1996 and 2000 LP Candidate qualified but didn’t take the funds.
Well, we’ll never know for sure if he qualified, because sometimes it appears candidates qualified based on their contributions, but there is so much fussy paperwork involved with applying, it is never certain without a formal FEC determination.
David: “Harry Browne 1996 and 2000 LP Candidate qualified but didn’t take the funds.”
This mindset is why the Libertarian cannot grow. I don’t know of any billionaire Libertarian Party members, so where the heck do they expect to get the funds to run a national election?
As I have written many times, all presidential elections should be publicly financed, putting all candidates on the same level at least from the expenditures for the office. 3rd parties need to understand this, but unfortunately many of them never will.
I wonder if any major party candidates will apply for primary-season matching funds in 2016. In 2012, only Buddy Roemer got matching funds as a Republican (and he later left the party). Gary Johnson didn’t apply for matching funds until after he had switched to the Libertarians, and Jill Stein received matching funds as a Green, but that was it.
It used to be that all the major party candidates accepted primary-season matching funds, but those days appear to be over.