Campaign Finance Reform: Early Experiences of Two States That Offer Full Public Funding for Political Candidates

摘要

Because the subject involves both politics and money, campaign finance reform can be contentious as well as complex. Congress has considered legislation for public financing of congressional elections nearly every session since 1956, although no law has been enacted. Traditionally, to identify promising ways to address complex or contentious issues, the federal government has drawn upon the diverse experiences of the laboratories of democracy, the states. In this regard, Section 310 of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 mandated that we study and report on the year 2000 elections in two states, Maine and Arizona. To provide a broader perspective, we also obtained statistics and related information regarding the 2002 elections in the two states.