Florida voters will decide in 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 public financing of campaigns for governor and cabinet positions, such as attorney general.
Voters rejected a similar proposal in 2010. But the state Legislature voted this year to see whether Florida residents, if given a second chance, would end a practice that has sent more than $33 million in taxpayer money to political campaigns since 2010 .
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Sen. Travis Hutson, a Republican from Palm Coast, supported the resolution that pushed the proposed constitutional amendment to this year’s ballot. Hutson, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment, said during this year’s legislative session that withdrawing public campaign funding would allow taxpayer dollars to be spent on other needs.
“This is money that comes out of general revenue and I think we need to put the question back to voters to see if they want us to spend general revenue on things other than advertising for statewide offices,” Hutson said during an ethics and election committee. meeting.
More than $13 million in taxpayer money went to candidates running for governor and the three state Cabinet positions in 2022, the last time those positions were on the ballot, according to an analysis of a Senate bill. Gov. Ron DeSantis received more than $7 million in public funds to fuel a campaign that raised about $200 million. His Democratic opponent, Charlie Crist, received more than $3 million in public money.
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But critics of the amendment worry that eliminating public campaign financing would deter people from running for office.
Common Cause Florida board member Ben Wilcox told the Miami Herald that if Amendment 6 were to pass, it would be bad for election integrity and public policy.
“Corporations and wealthy individuals who make campaign contributions would have greater ability to influence our elections,” Wilcox said. “Candidates who don’t have access to that kind of financing and who rely on smaller donations from individuals would hurt those candidates’ chances of winning and allow major campaign donors to have more influence on public policy.”
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How does public campaign financing work in Florida?
In 1998, Florida voters signed into the state constitution the ability for candidates running for governor and other cabinet positions to qualify for public money to subsidize their campaigns.
The program provides candidates with an equal amount of money from the public purse, provided they impose some modest limits on the amount of money they spend on their campaign.
Candidates for governor, for example, must agree to spend no more than $2 per registered voter, although they can spend more if a candidate who receives no public money exceeds that same limit.
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 companies and political committees are not aligned.
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What do critics say about Amendment 6?
Wilcox says public campaign financing has allowed a broader range of candidates to run for office in Florida and given candidates with fewer resources a way to be competitive in elections.
“When you have a candidate who has access to large campaign contributions versus a candidate who doesn’t have that kind of financing, public campaign finance acts as a way to level the playing field between those two candidates,” Wilcox said.
In 2010, the last time Florida residents considered ending the program, a majority of voters wanted to abandon the program, but the ballot question failed because it failed to gain 60% support.
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Wilcox believes Florida residents will vote against Amendment 6 again this fall, saying there has been no “public outcry” to eliminate public campaign financing. He can only guess why lawmakers brought the issue up for a vote again.
“I think there are some legislators who are philosophically opposed to spending public dollars on elections for campaigns, and they are probably the ones who benefit from a system where there is no public campaign finance,” Wilcox said. “They likely benefit from large campaign contributions coming from wealthy individuals and corporations, so they see no need to level the playing field with candidates who don’t have access to that kind of financing.”
While the initiative to defund public campaigns has been pushed by Republican lawmakers, Wilcox says both Democratic and Republican candidates have benefited from public funds for their campaigns.
Wilcox says that as Floridians decide how to vote on Amendment 6, he hopes they will ask themselves whether public policy should be based on “public interest” or the “influence of wealthy corporations.”
“Typically in Florida elections there are companies in the state that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars supporting candidates and those companies want something in return for that money. They are not making a $100,000 contribution in the interest of good government, they are hoping the government will be good to them,” Wilcox said.
