The
Red Hook Star Revue ª
Opinion:
SOUTH BROOKLYN’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
L
by Michael
Racioppo
A worthy experiment
ate Supreme Court Justice, Louis Brandeis famously said - when referring to states rights - “It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.” States, of course, have had some pretty horrific “experiments,” i.e. racial segregation and poll tax’s operating under the guise of “states rights.” But there have also been state “experiments” that are successful and lead as a model for the nation. A prime example of this would be universal healthcare in Massachusetts which is now the model for nation under “Obamacare.” In New York State, with all the political corruption that has gone on - from Republicans such as Senator Joe Bruno’s indictment for fraud or the Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s hush money payments, the public is supportive of reform. What I mean by reform is changes to our political system that would reduce even the possibility of corruption. The best way to do this is through publicly financed elections. Publicly financed elections would allow elected officials to focus their time on legislating and governing, as opposed to raising money. It would also reduce the possibility that a politician’s stance on an issue is tied to which stance will boost campaign donations.
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There are varying ways to implement a publicly financed election system. There can be direct subsidies of matching funds to political parties, limited donation amounts, free or reduced advertising rates, exemption from fees like mailing and other government services amongst cost reducing policies. No matter how it is done, the unifying theme to all actions related to publicly financed elections, is the reduction of ways in which a politician can be “bought off.” I am hardly the only person who has raised publicly financed elections as a possibility for New York. In his January “State of the State” address, Governor Cuomo expressed support for it but, the Republican controlled Senate disagreed, rendering the issue dead for the time being. That could all change with Facebook cofounder Chris Hughes financing a new campaign to press the issue in coordination with Cuomo and other supportive officials. The name of the Political Action Committee (PAC) started this year is called “Protecting our Democracy.” The mission of which is to “to pass robust campaign finance reform in New York during the 2012-2013 legislative session.” One could argue that it iis hypocritical for me to cite a group with a lot of money. Chris Hughes has an estimated net worth of just under $1 billion, as a vehicle for fighting money in politics. I would argue, that at this point it is a matter of needing to fight fire with fire. Those who feel that there should be no monetary limits on political speech and see it all as “freedom” are well financed and would be impossible to beat without lots of money. Couple that with the fact that,74% of New Yorkers, according to a Sienna College poll, are supportive of campaign finance reform, and it becomes clear that it is worth trying to conduct such a - as Justice Brandeis would have called it - “experiment.”
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Through October 18, 2012