Public Campaign Financing

The question is how do you get legislators who truely represent the public when they have to raise big money from special interests. One solution is provide public funding for candidates running for office.

Like so much in politics, the issue of publicly financed campaigns may finally come down to money.

Supporters of publicly financed elections are looking to the Big Island, hoping County Council members there and the county's lobbyist will lead the effort at the state Legislature this year to establish a system of publicly financed elections for that island's nine council races.

The Big Island council last month became the first elected body in Hawai'i to volunteer to try out the proposed new system, a step that could lead to Hawai'i's first fully publicly funded campaigns there in 2010.

The plan is to provide enough public funding to each qualifying council candidate to run a credible campaign without accepting any campaign contributions from special interests. To qualify for public funding, each candidate would have to collect a signature and a $5 donation from 200 registered voters.

The plan has some popular appeal, but Campaign Spending Commission Executive Director Barbara Wong offers some sobering cost calculations: If 50 candidates qualify for public funding in the council primary election, the primary alone would cost about $1 million.

How many people would want to run if they can use someone elses money rather than their own? How do you limit whose campaign will pay for to only viable candidates. One way would require a larger contribution from more registered voters.

Don't dismiss public campaign financing as just another impractical and expensive idea.

Public Campaign Financing may be the only way we will be able to get the big money lobbiests out of government and bring our government back to the people.

The question truely is money. How much are we willing to pay to have our government leaders accountable to us rather than to Big Business?