Year Plagued by Scandal Also Produces Major Reform

PRESS RELEASE December 19, 2007

YEAR PLAGUED BY SCANDAL ALSO PRODUCES MAJOR REFORM

A reform coalition today released a scorecard that highlighted passage of significant changes in North Carolina’s campaign financing laws in the midst of a year marked by money-in-politics scandal.

The scorecard produced by the NC Voters for Clean Elections (NCVCE) shows the wide variance in support from reform inside the NC General Assembly, with twenty-seven legislators receiving one-hundred percent scores and sixteen legislators receiving zero percent.

Although the year was marked by a federal bribery conviction of former House Speaker Jim Black at the beginning and the indictment of Rep. Thomas Wright at the end, it also included an expansion of campaign public financing to three offices of the Council of State, authorization for the town of Chapel Hill to create a local, municipal program, and several changes to lobbying and ethics rules and the state’s appellate judge public financing program.

Chase Foster, coordinator for NCVCE, said this was a good year overall for reform. “We began the year with the Speaker of the House mired in federal bribery charges, and ended the year with a host of new campaign and lobby reforms,” said Foster. “Though we still have tremendous work to do, this was a year of progress for ‘Voter-Owned Elections.’ in North Carolina”

“Voter-Owned Elections”—also known as public campaign financing— is a money-in-politics reform concept that allows candidates to receive a public grant to run their campaigns if they first collect hundreds of small, qualifying contributions from voters and agree to strict spending and fundraising limits. Proponents of the system argue that it makes elected officials more accountable to the public, reduces moneyed interests influence over our political system, and allows a more diverse group of candidates to run for office. The program has been available since 2004 for the state’s appellate judges and starting this year is available for candidates running for Commissioner of Insurance, State Auditor, and Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Many of the narrow vote margins described in the scorecard indicate that “Voter-Owned Elections” is still contentious within the state legislature, despite popular support across North Carolina and the nation. For instance, the Council of State bill—the flagship achievement of the coalition this session—passed the House on votes of 53-52 and 59-57, and the vote in the Senate was also close.

“Every single vote made the difference this year,” Foster said. “This scorecard lets the public know who stood for the money-chase-as-usual, and who stood for meaningful reform.”

Some other highlights of the scorecard include:

  • Overall, Democrats outperformed Republicans: Democrats earned an average score of 75%; Republicans, 17%.
  • Perfect scores were earned by twenty members in the N.C. House and seven members in the N.C. Senate.
  • Fifty House members and twenty-two Senate members received scores of 70% or above.
  • Zero percent ratings were earned by sixteen legislators, including one Democrat, Rep. Ronnie Sutton (D-Robeson).
  • The average score in the House was 49%, and the average score in the Senate was 57%

Here are the full results of the scorecard.

NCVCE is the central statewide coordinating group for comprehensive campaign reform advocacy based on the "Voter-Owned" Elections, public financing model in the state of North Carolina. 

The coalition is made up of more than 35 organizations including AARP, Center for Voter Education, Common Cause North Carolina, Democracy North Carolina, League of Women Voters, NC Bankers Association, NC Conference of Branches of the NAACP, NC Association of Educators, NC PIRG, NC Council of Churches, and the NC Justice Center.

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