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1 Brennan Center Analysis of Minor Party Cost to Public Financing Programs 1 (2020)

handle is hein.brennan/bcjaym0001 and id is 1 raw text is: BRENNAN CENTER January 15, 2020 Brennan Center Analysis of Minor Party Cost to Public Financing Programs The New York Public Campaign Financing Commission last year designed a solid and, in important ways, innovative program of small donor public financing that will enable competitive candidates to fund their campaigns mostly on small donations from constituents.' It is the most powerful response by any state after Citizens United to the rising influence of private wealth in politics.2 This achievement was historic in a state where huge donors and associated corruption have dominated politics for decades.3 But the commission tarnished that result when it also significantly raised ballot access requirements for minor party and independent candidates, asserting with no evidence that tougher ballot access was important to save public financing costs.4 Governor Cuomo and other leaders echoed the commission's assertions and allowed its recommended bill to become law.' Nothing in the experience of longstanding public financing programs provides a reasonable basis for this belief. Two places with the nation's most well-established programs also, like New York State, maintain the rare policy of allowing losers of major party primaries to run in the general election on a third line, generating significant numbers of minor party candidacies.6 Contrary to the commission's assumptions, though, New York City and Connecticut have seen only de minimis public financing costs from minor party candidates. The one anecdote Commissioner Jay Jacobs discussed to explain his fear of out-of- control participation in public financing - the 2019 special election for New York City public advocate - occurred under city rules that are irrelevant to the state and was not a product of minor party access to the ballot. The evidence from existing systems reinforces the Campaign Finance Institute's data-based estimate that minor party candidates would, under the state's pre-2020 ballot access rules, cost little or nothing beyond what is already estimated to be a $76 million annual cost (including administration) for the new public financing program, well within its $100 million annual budget.7 The governor and legislature should act to preserve their accomplishment of an innovative public financing program and the national praise and imitation it deserves. They should amend the law to remove the commission's ballot access restrictions and clearly detangle public financing from them. Those restrictions are unjustified by evidence and only run counter to the democracy-enhancing benefits of public financing. This analysis shows the following findings: 1) Minor party candidates have generated minimal public financing costs, even when significant numbers ran for office. - New York City's experience is particularly instructive. The city sees high rates of minor party candidacies, significantly higher than in New York State. It has offered multiple match public Page 1of 8

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