Poll Says 3 of 4 New Yorkers support Publicly Financed Elections - Updated
Yep - I’m one of ‘em. From the D&C.
A new poll released today shows that three out of four New York voters prefer publicly financed political campaigns.
The poll was commissioned by the Public Policy and Education Fund of New York, an affiliate of Citizen Action New York, a social justice organization, and performed by Zogby International.
Performed by Zogby, not a fly-by-night pollster.
3 of 4 New Yorkers. Check out our graphic on the right- It doesn’t look like 3 of 4 local State Assembly folks are for it. Wonder why?
Though the proposal would mean taxpayers would finance campaigns, it would save taxpayers in the long run because influence wielded by special interests, which drives up the cost of government, would be reversed, Greenbaum said.
He cited the results in Maine, which adopted Clean Money, Clean Elections, as the legislation is known. Maine lawmakers quickly approved bulk prescription drug purchasing, which has not been passed in New York state.
How exactly is this a bad idea?
Update: btp here. We’ve got a poll to back us up, now help the good folks from MetroJustice and other reform groups get CMCE enacted. As you’ve seen from our banner up top, tomorrow they’re road-tripping to Albany to talk to legislators about this and get them on board.
You can help by joining them tomorrow. From MetroJustice:
7am, Tuesday, April 29
Metro Justice parking lot
We’ll caravan to Albany and return by 7pm the same nightWe’ll be rallying for reform in Albany and meeting with our Assemblymembers. If you haven’t ever done a lobby visit before this is a good opportunity. We’ll show you everything you need to know.
I can’t wait until my personal situation allows me to join in stuff like this. It sounds really cool.
It’s NOT a bad idea. I know from my Assembly race against an entrenched, well-funded incumbent that public financing is the closest thing we have to a magic bullet when it comes to reforming Albany. And I can easily be convinced that we really can’t reform Albany without it (more collateral damage from the Spitzer implosion, I’m afraid). But what really frightens me is the Nation article Grievous Angel blogged about over the weekend which covers Jack Davis’ lawsuit against the Millionaire’s Amendment. The piece suggests that the Court, which seems likely to side with Davis, will invalidate not only the Millionaire’s Amendment but Clean Money Clean Elections systems that have been adopted because they share “trigger” provisions that seemed to be a particular focus of the justices’ question.