Public Campaign Finance Fund code revisions

I previewed for you in March, many of the proposed changes (pdf) in Portland’s Public Campaign Finance fund system going to Council this afternoon. Most of the changes suggested by the Citizens Campaign Commission are incorporated into the proposal on the table today. Perhaps the most significant change is that the Commission’s suggestion of requiring candidates to turn in 30% of their signatures with $5 contributions by December 1, has been amended to require this submission within five days of whenever the sub-target is reached. I support this change. It’s a good idea to mandate submission of the first 300 donations for a Commissioner seat, 450 for Mayor. That allows the Auditor’s office and the public to review the first batch of signatures for validity. It will give early indication of which candidates have significant community support. And it will be helpful for people running, to know how accurate they and their authorized solicitors are being in signing up only people registered to vote in Portland.

Still in the proposal is a change in the timeline for collecting qualifying donations – if adopted, it will start on July 1, end on January 31 2008. So the article in today’s Portland Mercury is incorrect in asserting the first person to file for Sam Adams’ seat will have “a jump on collecting signatures and donations in order to qualify for the city’s public campaign fund, which gives $145,000 to candidates who can raise 1,000 $5 contributions.” Nobody may start collecting until July 1, if the ordinance passes [September 1 (as in the current code) if it doesn’t]. One of the good features of Portland’s system is that candidates don’t have as long as they like to collect their 1000 donations (1500 for Mayor). There is a start date and an ending date, so only those who truly have significant community support are able to qualify in the time allowed. Any candidate who files on Day 1, July 1, might have “a jump on collecting”.

I write “might have” an advantage. In this election, it seems likely neither Sam Adams nor Tom Potter will have declared whether they intend to seek re-election by that date. Another proposed change in the system is to have each donor sign a separate form, with many more details about what their signature means than on the forms last time. One of those stipulations is that the person signing agrees that they support the candidate receiving $150,000 in public money to run for the particular seat filed for. In my opinion, anyone starting to collect signatures and donations before Sam Adams declares whether or not he is going to run for Seat 1 again, will hear over and over, “Come back if Sam isn’t running. If he is, I can’t sign this.”

I filed at 9 a.m. on September 1, the first cycle. While that proved a good strategy in that many who started later failed to qualify in time, even then my early filing had disadvantages as well. I spent a lot of time explaining what the Public Financing System is and how volunteers and donors must comply with its regulations. I heard “There’s an election coming up? Not until May? Who else is running?”, often. And maintaining momentum and volunteer time commitments for nine months from September through May was tiring. We’re talking about the primary for a city Council position, not the Presidential nomination, after all.

While it was one of my suggestions, to move the start date back to July 1, to allow candidates to gather donations at neighborhood picnics before the hectic start of the school year, I won’t be disappointed if the Mayor and Sam don’t make their announcements before September. Viable candidates should be able to gather the donations in three months, even with the revised, more challenging qualifying standards. My volunteers and I did it in two months, three weeks last time; Erik Sten qualified in two months, two weeks. Although the bar will be higher this time, with the change to requiring all donors to be registered voters and to sign a triplicate form in the presence of the solicitor, Portlanders are more familiar with the concept. And especially if there are two open seats, I hope everyone will be more supportive of it. I believe Public Campaign Financing is a necessary component of fairer elections in Portland, even though by itself it can’t ensure totally Voter Owned Elections.