Campaign Finance Institute examines public financing possibilities in Midwest

A study by the Campaign Finance Institute released today attempts to find a Constitutionally viable means of campaign finance reform that would withstand legal challenge. CFI’s report examines states in the Midwest (all Network states: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin) to see how a system of encouraging and enhancing small dollar donations would work.

The Supreme Court has recently struck down campaign finance laws in their McComish decision and in Citizens United, establishing the current standard that any restrictions on speech cannot be upheld in accordance with the First Amendment. One characteristic of the Midwest states studied here is that big money donations dominated the political scene, with Minnesota being the only state where a majority of donations were in amounts under $250.

CFI tested a hypothetical financing system where small dollar donations ($50 or less) were matched 5-1 with public funds, and the results bring the donation levels in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin up to par with Minnesota. New York City’s current public financing law was used as a basis for this hypothetical, and the mechanism of low-donor matching funds combined with a spending limit is similar to the proposed federal legislation for future congressional and presidential elections.

Read the Campaign Finance Institute’s press release and download the report here.

The report also cites a small-donor proposal by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, on which more information can be found here.