Florida voters will decide this November whether to pull the plug on a program that for a quarter-century has allowed candidates seeking the state’s highest offices to subsidize their campaigns with public money.
Amendment 6, one of six ballot measures that Floridians will consider this fall, aims to end the public financing of campaigns for governor and cabinet positions like attorney general.
Voters shot a similar proposal down in 2010. But the state Legislature voted this year to see if, given a second chance, Floridians would end a practice that since 2010 has steered more than $33 million in taxpayer money to political campaigns.
Sen. Travis Hutson, a Palm Coast Republican, sponsored the resolution that pushed the proposed constitutional amendment onto this year’s ballot.
It’s a Republican resolution that already failed to get the vote in 2010.
Ben Wilcox, a board member of Common Cause Florida, told the Miami Herald that if Amendment 6 passed it would be bad for the integrity of elections and public policy. “Corporations and wealthy individuals that make campaign contributions would have more ability to influence our elections,” said Wilcox. “Candidates that are not able to access that kind of funding and that rely on smaller donations from individuals, it would hurt those candidates’ chances to win and empower the big campaign donors to have more influence on public policy.”
It’s going to make the individual political contributions of actual Floridians and voters less meaningful.
Only personal contributions from Florida residents to a candidate’s official campaign account are eligible for matching funds, capped at $250 per person. Contributions from corporations and political committees are not matched.
Yep, if passed, your contributions cannot hope to match the corporations buying candidates. $250 per person is barely a drop in the bucket anyway.
"[Politicians in favor of the resolution are] probably benefiting from large campaign contributions that are coming from wealthy individuals and corporations so they don’t see a need to level the playing field with candidates who don’t have access to that kind of funding.” [said Wilcox.]
Wilcox says as Floridians are deciding on how they will vote on Amendment 6, he hopes they will ask themselves if public policy should be based on “public interest” or the “influence of wealthy corporations.”
