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This article focuses on the State Legislature, but a lot of the ideas
here are equally applicable for all state offices.
Finally, this article assumes that what I call "independent minded"
candidates are often people that the "regulars" in both major parties
call "troublemakers." I try to be realistic about what potential
issues and obstacles may arise when people don't take a "party line"
approach to political participation.
The conventional wisdom is that campaigns are getting more expensive.
That's true -- if you want a Legislative campaign with a lots of
glossy brochures and mailings, and fancy signs. None of that is
necessary, and it all ends up in the trash.
The reality is that the internet is making it possible to have political
campaigns that are both more in-depth, and less expensive.
A good State Legislative campaign should be both educational for voters,
and one of the best learning experiences of your life.
Campaign finance basics.
First a disclaimer, I'm not an attorney. If you decide to go
ahead with filing for the Legislature, I recommend you start by visiting
the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board
web site. If you have any questions about campaign finance and
reporting, you should contact them and/or an attorney who practices in
this area.
Here's my assessment: overall, Minnesota has a good campaign
finance system, especially when it comes to disclosure and reporting. Both major parties have candidates participating
in the system for almost all Legislative contests. This means that
the campaigns are following spending limits, and the combination of
small donations and public financing seems to at least reduce the impact
of special interests. However, as you look deeper in to how the
system works, we'll see some problems in a moment.
Here's how the system works for State House races. Minnesota's public campaign finance law provides that if you agree to
spending limits of about $30,000 for a State House seat (double for the
State Senate), and some other restrictions, your campaign is eligible
for public financing. In the last election, the public financing
for State House elections totaled $1.73 million. This averages to
a little over $6,000 per major party candidate. The total spending
for all State House campaigns averaged about $17,700 per campaign. In addition, Minnesota has an unusual program for campaign finance.
Anyone can contribute a total of up to $50 a year to political
campaigns, and receive a money back refund. As a contributor, you just send in a one
page form, and a receipt from the campaign, and you will receive a check or EFT
from the State for the amount you contributed. [Note (date 7/13/09):
the Pawlenty administration is attempting to unallot this money -- Bob
Carney Jr. is challenging this in court with a lawsuit shortly]. Most of the time, the Legislature decides how to spend our tax
dollars -- that's a big reason why we have a Legislature. In this
case, the Legislature lets you decide how you want your $50 spent.
And let's keep this clearly in mind: if you comply with the requirements
of the political contribution refund law -- that $50 is your
money.
Isn't this better than having corporations and special interest groups
decide?
To qualify for public campaign financing, you must raise a minimum of
$1,500 in individual contributions, of $50 per person (money above $50
per person does not count towards the $1,500 total). The $50
contributions refunded by the State do count towards the $1,500
amount. Another requirement for public campaign financing is that
you must win your party's primary (or run unopposed in the primary).
Here's what this boils down to.
1) If you can raise a minimum of $1,500 in individual contributions,
and win party nomination for a State House seat, you are in a good
position to have a minimum of about $7,000 or more to run a campaign.
2) If you don't win a party's endorsement, but do win
the primary, you still qualify for the approximately $6,000 (average) of
public campaign financing. 3) Regardless of what happens in the
primary, your eligible contributors will receive their $50
refunds. Three conclusions follow from
this: 1) You can run a high-quality, special-interest-free Legislative
campaign if you can convince a lot of voters to participate in the $50
refund program. 2) Here's one aspect of this system that you might see
as a problem (but others may disagree). If a major party doesn't want you to win a primary, if you're a "troublemaker" from their
point of view, (or an "independent minded" candidate from your point of
view) -- this system makes it easy for the party to make things difficult for you.
All the "regulars" have to do is recruit a candidate, steer $1,500 in
contributions to that candidate, and loan the campaign the approximate
amount of the available public financing. Under this scenario, the
"independent minded" candidate (you) faces a party-endorsed
candidate, backed by the party machinery (such as it is), on the party
ballot, and with $8,000 or more in campaign funds for the primary
election. For this reason, my conclusion is that although the
Minnesota system is pretty good overall, it's still difficult for "independent minded"
candidates to win if the "regulars" nominates a "get along, go along"
candidate. 3) Therefore
-- If you are an "independent minded," candidate, from the
Republican wing of the Republican party, to have any reasonable prospect
you need to find a way to campaign that is both inexpensive and
effective. The rest of this article is intended to show that this
is possible.
Here's the plan: 1) You build your own campaign
web site. If you use little or no video, your hosting cost can
easily be $500 or less for an entire year.
2) Now, with your web site, you have a way to explain your views and positions
to your potential constituents at any level of depth they want. One
consequence of this is that most "traditional" campaign practices are
now obsolete. So: |
think would be a good Republican Legislator?
about
Federal races?