By Robert Morgan
RALEIGH – This past week I traveled to Raleigh to reunite with some old friends and colleagues, such as former congressman Tim Valentine, former legislators Wib Gulley and Ronnie Smith and several North Carolina political leaders, both Democrats and Republicans.
They came to Raleigh to respond to a plea I made to campaign donors around the state: to stand up and say enough is enough and to demand the legislature begin the process of reforming our campaigns to reduce the corrosive influence of money over politics.
Over 700 political leaders answered my letter and pledged their support of campaign finance reform, including Republican former legislators and congressmen, and Democrats who had served on our Council of State, like Ed Renfrow and Janice Faulkner.
That by itself may not be ground-shaking news. We know that many people support campaign reform and want to reduce special-interest influence over elections.
However, this is a group that is intimately involved in the campaign process.
Together, this group has made over $7 million in campaign contributions. They understand the importance of electing good men and women. They understand that elections are getting more and more expensive, tripling in cost over the last decade. But they all agree that the system has gotten out of control.
It is becoming impossible to run for many of our statewide offices without access to millions of dollars in personal wealth, or without accepting hundreds of thousand of dollars of special-interest money. That is, unless we reform our system.
North Carolina was once highly regarded as the “Good Government State.†Today it is embarrassing that so many of our public servants have apparently sold votes, or at the very least been improperly influenced in their decisions as they struggle to raise campaign cash.
There are several things that we can do to improve our elections, but the most important thing is to somehow give citizens the ability to run for office without having to rely on personal wealth or financing their races through gifts from the special interests they are supposed to regulate.
I support a reform called Voter-Owned Elections. The concept is that elected officials ought to be accountable to the voters and taxpayers, not special interests. By creating a public campaign fund, candidates can opt into a program where they limit their spending and say no to special-interest money and in return they can get matching funds to help run a competitive campaign.
In order to qualify for public funds, this proposal would require that candidates receive small contributions from lots of people in order to prove that they are serious candidates. All qualifying candidates would receive an equal amount of funds to finance their campaigns.
Under this proposal, the participating candidates would have to raise all of their funds from within their districts.
Every voter should be concerned about what is happening to their government. Basic decisions about the cost and safety of our food and medicine, our access to good roads and good jobs, keeping the costs of our taxes and basic government services down – these are all influenced by big money in politics.
However, if the role of special interests is limited in campaign fundraising, they will have less influence on elections, allowing lawmakers to devote more time to solving the problems of average North Carolinians. If candidates do not have to rely on big contributions or special-interest money to run for office, there will be a more level playing field and more regular citizens can run for office.
Democrats and Republicans alike, over 700 former elected officials and campaign donors realize there is something wrong with our system today, and unless we reform our system our citizens will lose the responsive and participatory democracy that they deserve.
Robert Morgan of Lillington is a former U.S. senator, N.C. attorney general and state senator. He is the president emeritus of the N.C. Center for Voter Education.