RGF talks to KOAT about Albuquerque’s “shady” public financing system

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The idea of Albuquerque’s public campaign finance law is to “get money out of politics.” Of course, reality doesn’t always work out the way the it is intended.

In fact, the upshot of the system as it exists is that candidates often qualify for public financing and THEN have “measure finance committees” (essentially PACs) set up by friends and supporters to run other aspects of their campaigns. Worse, as we saw when Tim Keller ran and won in 2017 he abused the system, but was never held truly accountable and remained mayor. You can check out the KOAT story here. 

The Rio Grande Foundation opposes taxpayer-funded elections on principle. Candidates should have to raise money from willing donors, not forced contributions to their campaigns through taxation. As we’ve seen and as this story reiterates, the system has utterly failed to “replace” private interests as a source of campaign support.