In mayoral race, public money only helps incumbent
Public fund doesn’t level field for campaign finance
New Haven city officials created the New Haven Democracy Fund in 2007 to provide public funding to mayoral candidates in the hopes of fostering more competitive races. But this year, only one of the four mayoral candidates has qualified for the funding: the 15-year incumbent, John DeStefano Jr.
According to his most recent campaign finance report, DeStefano raised $175,557.50 for his campaign as of Oct. 20, $11,330 of which came from the Democracy Fund. On the other hand, two of his challengers, independents Ralph Ferrucci and Henri Sumner, both chose not to participate in the program...
#2
By Check yourself
1:12p.m. on November 3, 2009
Logical flaw in this article: It's absurd to even talk about this election as a "race" in the first place.
I don't think the point of public campaign financing is to "level the playing field" or necessarily "fostering more competitive races."
One purpose is to provide people who demonstrate a threshold level of support with sufficient funds to run their campaigns. (A threshold requirement is important so that the public doesn't see its funds going to "fringe" candidates, which would diminish public support of the system.) And another is to break any perceived link between donations and influence.
Many public financing systems allow one candidate to outraise another, but they still allow others to get their messages out. If public financing leads to greater competition, great. But it's not the sole purpose of these systems.