Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Maryland public financing program boosts small-dollar support for candidates, report finds

Maryland public financing program boosts small-dollar support for candidates, report finds

Montgomery County's public financing program made its debut during the 2018 election.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

Montgomery County, Md., gave campaign finance reform a test drive during last year's election when candidates could opt in to a matching funds program. A recent report from Maryland PIRG deemed the program's inaugural run a success.

The nonpartisan public interest research group outlined in its report, released Thursday, how Montgomery County's program led to greater participation and small-dollar donations. The matching funds boosted fundraising for qualifying candidates to make their average contribution totals comparable to non-participating competitors.

Average contributions for qualifying candidates totaled $306 — almost $10 more than the average donations given to non-participating candidates.


Of the 57 candidates who ran for county executive or a county council seat last year, 35 participated in the public financing program. But only 24 candidates followed all the rules to qualify for matching funds. The Montgomery County Council appropriated $11 million for this election — roughly $2 million was left over at the end.

Candidates who qualified:

  • Only accepted donations from individuals between $5 and $150.
  • Refused to accept money from large donors, PACs, corporations, other candidates and political parties.
  • Met the minimum thresholds for number of county donors and amount of money raised.

Once they meet these requirements, candidates can receive a certain amount of matching funds for each donation between $5 and $150 during contested primary and general elections.

  • County executive candidates: Up to $750,000
  • County council at-large candidates: Up to $250,000
  • County council candidates: Up to $125,000

Candidates not participating in Montgomery County's public financing program could accept up to $6,000 from each political action committee, union, corporation or individual, under Maryland state law.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Qualifying candidates were able to use the matching program to stay competitive against their opponents, the report says. On average, these candidates received 96 percent more contributions from individuals than the campaigns who did not participate in the program.

The Montgomery County Council passed a bill in September 2014 to adopt this public financing system, but November 2018 was the first election that candidates could participate and qualify to receive matching funds.

Six candidates who participated in the program won their respective elections — one for county executive and five of the nine county council seats.

"We are building a democracy where everyone has equal opportunity to participate in county elections regardless of race, gender, age, or income. With the small donor program, Montgomery County is helping ensure county government is accountable to residents, not wealthy special interests," Maryland PIRG Director Emily Scarr said.

Read More

a hand holding a red button that says i vote
Parker Johnson/Unsplash

Yes, elections have consequences – primary elections to be specific

Can you imagine a Republican winning in an electoral district in which Democrats make up 41 percent of the registered electorate? Seems farfetched in much of the country. As farfetched as a Democrat winning in a R+10 district.

It might be in most places in the U.S. – but not in California.

Republican Rep. David Valadao won re-election in California's 22nd congressional district, where registered Republicans make up just shy of 28 percent of the voting population. But how did he do it?

Keep ReadingShow less
A better direction for democracy reform

Denver election judge Eric Cobb carefully looks over ballots as counting continued on Nov. 6. Voters in Colorado rejected a ranked choice voting and open primaries measure.

Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images

A better direction for democracy reform

Drutman is a senior fellow at New America and author "Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America."

This is the conclusion of a two-part, post-election series addressing the questions of what happened, why, what does it mean and what did we learn? Read part one.

I think there is a better direction for reform than the ranked choice voting and open primary proposals that were defeated on Election Day: combining fusion voting for single-winner elections with party-list proportional representation for multi-winner elections. This straightforward solution addresses the core problems voters care about: lack of choices, gerrymandering, lack of competition, etc., with a single transformative sweep.

Keep ReadingShow less
To-party doom loop
Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America

Let’s make sense of the election results

Drutman is a senior fellow at New America and author of "Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America."

Well, here are some of my takeaways from Election Day, and some other thoughts.

1. The two-party doom loop keeps getting doomier and loopier.

Keep ReadingShow less
Person voting in Denver

A proposal to institute ranked choice voting in Colorado was rejected by voters.

RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images

Despite setbacks, ranked choice voting will continue to grow

Mantell is director of communications for FairVote.

More than 3 million people across the nation voted for better elections through ranked choice voting on Election Day, as of current returns. Ranked choice voting is poised to win majority support in all five cities where it was on the ballot, most notably with an overwhelming win in Washington, D.C. – 73 percent to 27 percent.

Keep ReadingShow less