Bernalillo County will soon consider public campaign financing

I recently received an email from a group calling itself New Mexico Voters First. The email included the headline “Speak out for Public Financing this Week!” To date there has been very little published on the issue elsewhere although the barest of legislative language can be found here. 

The email continued, “If passed, Item 3A would include races for County Commissioners, Assessor, Clerk, District Attorney, Probate Judge, Sheriff, Treasurer could become more accessible to a wider range of candidates with this change.”

The details provided in the proposal are minimal. See Section F here. But, based on the experience with public financing in Albuquerque, taxpayer funding of elections does absolutely nothing to keep “private or corporate” money out of elections. Rather, it allows incumbent and well-funded campaigns to augment their private funding war chests with “public” financing provided by taxpayers.

We know nearly nothing at this point about the details. How much money per candidate and office? How much will this cost the County? Where will the money come from? Will voters have a final say in whether this system is created or will the incumbents (who will primarily benefit) simply enact the program?