A national research organization has published a report saying North Carolina has one of the best models of taxpayer-financed campaigns in the country.
The report examines a 2002 law that allows for publicly financed campaigns for state appellate court and Supreme Court seats. Candidates qualify for the program by raising a set number of small contributions in the primary and are then given funds for the general election.
In 2008, 31 of the 41 candidates for these seats received money from the program.
"North Carolina's judicial public financing program goes a long way to reducing the potentially corrupting influence of private contributions in judicial elections," Jessica Levinson, the center's director or political reform, said in a press release.
The Center for Governmental Studies, a non-partisan research group, published the report. The center also has released reports on other public financing laws in other states, including Florida, New Jersey and Minnesota.
While the report says the N.C. law is strong, it makes suggestions on how to improve the it.
The report's suggestions after the jump.
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The report advocates strengthening the law in four ways:
* Make it so that taxpayers sign on to the program unless they chose to opt out. Taxpayers currently must opt in to the program.
* Consider money spent in both primaries and the general election when determining how much money to provide candidates when they are being outspent by candidates who opted out of the program.
* Allow candidates to publicly finance primary campaigns. Currently only general election campaigns are financed.
* Index the public money provided for inflation.
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