Students from the Brown chapter of Democracy Matters testified before the State Senate Judiciary Committee on March 7 as a part of their effort to pass Clean Elections legislation, which would allow candidates for state office to publicly finance their campaigns.
"The students really spoke eloquently at the hearing," said Sen. Rhoda Perry P '91, D-District 3. "I concur with what they said," she added.
"The only way for (politicians) to get to office is to play the (money) game - they're forced into it. One of the things I remember saying in my testimony is 'don't hate the player, change the game,'" Jon Bogard '09 said.
About four students testified before the committee, and about 30 others attended in support, Bogard said, adding the room was "literally filled to capacity."
The Brown chapter of Democracy Matters was founded two years ago by Herald Opinions Columnist Te-Ping Chen '07. Together with Common Cause and other groups, it backs a Clean Elections bill that would create a "fully voluntary system of financing public elections" at the state level, according to Bogard.
The proposed system would "level the playing field for candidates for public office," Bogard said. "Money has become a prerequisite for holding office, which is not a just system, and it's not an effective system."
"It would reinvigorate the voting population," he added. Constituents are "going to be more inclined to participate in the political process," he said, also noting, "it would allow greater opportunities for women and minorities."
"It expands the number of people who can think about running for office - because it does cost money" to do so, said Rep. Edith Ajello, D-District 3, who is backing the legislation in the R.I. House of Representatives.
"A public funding mechanism is the only way to have real democracy," said Caroline Colesworthy A.M. '05, who also testified before the Senate committee. "The halls (of the State House) do not reflect the citizenry by any stretch of the imagination."
Perry is sponsoring the bill in the Senate.
"As has been seen on a federal level, the more that big sums of money" from lobbyists play a role in politics, "the more likely it is that there is going to be the possibility of corruption," she said.
Perry said the bill would bring about "more dialogue, more debate and more honest exchange" between public servants and their constituents.
Under the bill, candidates for state office would need to demonstrate a level of public support before qualifying for public financing by collecting $5 donations, with the number of donations differing for each statewide office. Upon returning the collected sum to the Clean Elections fund, public financing would then kick in.
The bill was introduced last spring but did not come to a vote, according to Bogard.
"Some people who think about running might not have five to seven thousand dollars of their own money ... they can use to start a campaign," Ajello said. "Seven thousand dollars might seem dismaying for some people, (but) 50 $5 contributions seems less dismaying."
Bogard said if a publicly funded candidate is running against a privately funded opponent, the "clean" candidate would receive "dollar-for-dollar" matching funding up to three times the initial amount.
Similar laws have come into effect in Maine and Arizona in 1996 and 1998, both through voter initiative. Connecticut also passed a Clean Elections bill last December. Binder said these cases helped persuade Rhode Island legislators by demonstrating "political feasibility."
Colesworthy said "Maine and Arizona have had higher voter turnout" since their Clean Elections laws went into effect, "which really suggests a rebirth of public interest."
The bill will soon be considered by the House Finance Committee, according to Bogard.
"For me, fundraising is the worst part of running for office," Perry said, adding that she "would wager the vast majority of candidates would agree."
"Once you get a candidate free from having to spend 50 or even 75 percent of their time (running for office) free from fundraising endeavors," Perry said, candidates could spend "so much more time connecting with the public they are to serve."
Perry said that while she thought the Clean Elections bill is "an exciting idea," "it will take some years probably to pass."
With the state facing a budget deficit of hundreds of millions of dollars, "I'm enough of a realist that I can say I don't have much hope that it will pass this year," Ajello said.
Even the name doesn't help - according to Perry and Ajello, calling publicly financed elections "clean" sounds good to activists but makes it harder to sell to politicians.
"It puts our colleagues on the defensive," Ajello added. "As a sales job with our colleagues, it makes it a bit harder, but on the other hand, in selling to the general public, it's catchy."
Bogard said he relished his experience testifying before the committee.
"The experience of testifying was an incredibly transformative one," he said. "It illuminated the necessity for me of participating in a democratic government. It was extremely empowering to walk into the State House and testify to the legislature, knowing that they were public servants and knowing they were a legislature serving my interests."
