Faith In Ohio Briefing Book (rough draft)

The Electoral Viability of Publicly Funded Candidates The most powerful way to reform our civic society would be to ensure that our brightest, most empathetic citizens could win grassroots campaigns for elected office. The Voter-Centered Democracy Amendment’s publicly funded electoral system will make this idealistic vision a reality.

One variable, above all, determines whether or not a candidate for office has a viable chance of winning: how much money they raise.

For every elected office there is a ‘viability hurdle’—an amount of money that, if raised, means the candidate can reasonably compete for the win. Candidates who raise enough money to meet this hurdle often win. Those who don’t reach this viability hurdle, almost always lose.

For Ohio State Representatives, for example, this viability hurdle is somewhere between $30,000-40,000. In our current campaign finance system, this hurdle is too high for average citizens to reach. In order to raise this much money, most candidates either rely on their own individual wealth or the wealth of their friends, family, and associates. In essence, the viability hurdle is high enough that only wealthy individuals, or people with close relationships with wealthy individuals, can reasonably expect to win elections.

With public vouchers, the playing field is leveled. Grassroots candidates, relying solely on public vouchers, will finally be able to raise enough money to become electorally viable.

To raise $40,000 a candidate would need to receive 800 fullvouchers ($50), 1600 half-vouchers ($25), or 3200 quarter-vouchers ($12.50). Effective networking, communications, and personal contact should enable a skilled grassroots candidate to collect enough voucher funds to be electorally viable. Such fundraising enables approximately four direct connections to primary voters: 2 direct mailers, 1 TV, and 1 radio or print. In our democratic system, primary victors are usually effective winners of the general election as well (p 7). All told, skilled grassroots candidates can use public funds to become viable winners.