Tom Lambeth remembers the bad-old days of campaign finance.
As chief of staff to Rep. Richardson Preyer in the 1970s, he recalls the days before post-Watergate reforms when lobbyists would hand cash-filled envelopes to Congressmen.
During his tenure as head of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation in Winston-Salem, he helped direct grant money and host conferences on campaign finance that indirectly led to the public financing of judicial campaigns and some Council of State races.
Now he's getting ready for an even bigger reform.
Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue has said she will appoint Lambeth to run an endowment that would providing public financing for gubernatorial candidates who pledge to run positive campaigns.
Lambeth, 73, says he spoke with Perdue about the endowment earlier this year and most recently about six weeks ago. He knows her from their work together on the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center and as a legislator.
More after the jump.
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He said he agrees with Perdue that the millions required to run a gubernatorial campaign are hurting the process and an endowment could help. For now, he's not sure whether it will be a nonprofit or some type of quasi-governmental institution.
His biggest concern going forward is how it will distribute funds.
"The most important thing will be making sure it's fair to all kinds of candidates," he said. "It's the same sort of thing you deal with in providing free television or radio time for candidates. Who do you include in debates? Who will receive funding?"
He said the endowment will need to strike a balance between inclusiveness and credibility.
"I don't think you want to create a mechanism that would incite a thousand people to run for office just because they could collect some money, but you want to give credibility to the process too," he said. "How you deal with those issues will be very challenging."
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