In a bipartisan effort, Commissioner Michael Toner and I — he is a Republican, I am a Democrat — have set forth proposals to entice major candidates back into the program.
The first step is to raise the spending ceiling for primaries to about $75 million. This figure corresponds to the spending limit for candidates for the general election. Because of this higher limit, the amount of matching funds available to a candidate in the nomination phase of the campaign should also be increased, to about $37.5 million (up from the present limit of about $19 million). The government should match the first $500 of any person's donation, instead of the current $250 it matches now.
These changes would provide a candidate enough money to get through the entire nomination period — including the lull between the early primary spending binge and the late-summer conventions. And it would give a participating candidate a fighting chance against a well-heeled candidate. The program would be large enough to persuade virtually all candidates to accept public financing in the primary as well as the general election.
Would it cost more? Of course — a whopping $2 more for each taxpayer who now agrees to give $3 of his or her taxes to the program. Right now, about 20 million taxpayers check the Presidential Election Campaign Fund box. If these taxpayers directed $5 to the fund, it would be large enough to entice everyone running for president to participate in the matching program — and these candidates would be beholden to the citizens. This money could replace the more than $375 million that candidates would otherwise have to raise from special interests.
Of course, you also need to educate Democrats to mark the checkoff box. It raises their taxes less than a dollar.
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