Assemblyman Koon responds to me on CMCE
Koon, continuing to rock as is his habit, had this to say about Clean Money Clean Elections (CMCE), in a 
response to a question I posed to him:
…I agree that it is time to reform the weakest campaign finance laws in the nation and replace it with one that will cut off the demand of private money from special interest groups.
Weakest campaign finance laws in the nation? Didn’t know that. But why am I not surprised?
The full public financing system, also known as Clean Money or Clean Elections, allows candidates a more level playing field on which to run a competitive and effective campaign by eliminating the money they receive from interest groups. We have evidence that this system can work, including…[gives examples of Maine and Arizona]. Full financing of campaigns has worked in these states, it can work in ours.
We’ve seen proof it works, and works well. There’s no excuse now.
But he really nails it here:
It is important that elected officials make it their priority to focus more on the concerns of their constituents than on the people who supply the most money to their campaigns. You can rest assured that I will work with Governor Eliot Spitzer in seeing that this reform measure be applied in New York State.
Best. Assemblyman. Ever.
I just had a Friday Face-Off column this past Friday on public financing in presidential campaigns. It’s still in the D&C forums. There are some caveats to the Maine and Arizona public funding movements and they are by no means perfect. I support free air time for candidates that can generate enough signatures or polling numbers to show they are competitive. There has to be some measure of electability so that nutjobs cannot get the free ad time on tv. Polls might do the trick.
In Arizona and Maine, there really haven’t been “nutjobs” getting public financing or free airtime. By making sure that candidates are “qualified” by walking their districts and getting $5 contributions and signatures from a large group of constituents, it really “vets” the candidates both in terms of their ability to communicate with groups of people and also in what they say to those people.
It’s great to see political leaders taking a stand for Clean Money!
James,
I used the term “nutjobs” because when I make the free air time argument inevitably someone always uses that term to sweep aside the idea. I agree that the signatures and $5 contributions is great. Are the Maine and Arizona programs mandatory? I don’t think so. I think it is voluntary but I could be wrong. If they are voluntary, then we still have the problem of rich candidates being able to buy more publicity.
Hmm… not sure if they’re voluntary, but, even if it is voluntary, the fact that nearly half the Az leg and Gov ran CMCE campaigns and got elected is really, really good.
The question becomes one of the “80/20 rule”, in my mind. Oh, and if you get a chance, can you post a link to the forum where you’re discussing CMCE? I’m motivated enough to track it down but others may not be.
Ooops, sorry about that. Here’s the link to the forum:
http://forums.democratandchronicle.com/viewtopic.php?t=2408
Ooops, that was Alex Zapesochny’s forum. Here’s mine:
http://forums.democratandchronicle.com/viewtopic.php?t=2410
[...] my Assemblyman Koon is on the reform train. Is yours? Just got a note from CitizenActionNY, who’ve been teaming up with MetroJustice to [...]
[...] You may remember Koon as another of our local progressive netroots heroes, having come out strongly in support of Clean Money Clean Elections (CMCE), as well as stepping up to the “No Reform, No Raise” [...]