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Alameda County, CA November 7, 2006 Election
Smart Voter

Campaign Fundraising Reform

By Michael K. "Mike" Rich

Candidate for Member, City Council; City of Alameda

This information is provided by the candidate
A creative idea to de-emphasize big-money campaigning.
As a first time candidate for political office with little fundraising experience, I would definitely be in favor of public sponsorship of local elections, but I would also be concerned about passing along the costs of to taxpayers, so I have a variation on the idea of publicly financed campaigns, to wit:  Instead of having the City finance individual campaigns, the City could instead set up a series of events that all candidates could participate in.  The City would "fund" the campaigns by providing campaign infrastructure in the form of local cable access programming time, televised candidate debates, meet & greet events, etc.

In addition to this City-sponsored schedule of events, each candidate would also be allowed to raise a modest amount (say somewhere between $2,500 and $5,000) through private donations for traditional election materials such as lawn signs, hand-outs, etc.  This approach would level the playing field and provide equal access for all the candidates at a relatively low cost to the City. It might also have the side benefit of improving civic discourse around elections.

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ca/alm Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 13, 2006 09:58
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