Late on the evening of September 30, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed AB 583, which establishes a pilot project for public funding in 2014. It only applies to the Secretary of State’s race. It requires Democrats and Republicans to collect 7,500 qualifying contributions in order to qualify for public funding. Independent candidates must collect 15,000 qualifying contributions in order to qualify for any funding. In the history of campaign finance records, no candidate for Secretary of State has ever received contributions from as many as 10,000 individuals. However, minor party candidates who receive qualifying contributions from 3,750 individuals could qualify for a one-fourth share of the amount of public funding that Democrats and Republicans get.
The California Clean Elections Organization did an extraordinarily good job of rallying support for this bill. The bill was opposed by virtually all Republicans in the legislature. This is the first time Governor Schwarzenegger has signed any election law bill that was opposed by virtually all California Republican legislators. Another hurdle the bill faced was that the California Fair Political Practices Commission, a non-partisan body, had formally asked for a veto, since it said the bill doesn’t have a large enough appropriation for administration of the program. Finally, the last time public funding was on the ballot, in 2006, it had only received a “Yes” vote of 26%. The voters will need to approve the provisions of AB 583 before it can go into effect. That vote will be June 8, 2010.
Richard,
Do you know the reason why only the Secretary of State
office was chosen for this ‘trial’ effort? I view it
curious that the Office which administers California’s
elections is the one that was chosen. Also, does the
number of contributors include both the primary and
general election? Finally, wouldn’t the 1/4th share be
far more than what any small party candidate has EVER
spent campaigning for this office?
I don’t know why the Secretary of State’s office was chosen, except that one reason it was chosen is that there probably will be no incumbent running for re-election for that office in 2014. The incumbent, Debra Bowen, is limited to two terms. People seem to assume she will run for re-election in 2010, so she would not be running in 2014. Of course she might not run for re-election in 2010, and even if she does, conceivably she could be defeated.
The contributors are just plain contributors, period. They aren’t classified as contributors during the primary season or contributors during the general election season.