The federal government should turn on the cash spigot when it comes to financing candidates for elective office, according to a Democrat who is asking the Federal Election Commission to consider the issue at its next public meeting.
“As it exists today, the presidential public funding program needs repair,” FEC Commissioner Ann Ravel wrote in a memo addressed to her fellow commissioners released on Friday. “The nominees of neither major party are using it.”
Ravel, who last year served as the agency’s rotating chairman, has long called on the government to become more involved with financing campaigns for federal candidates, arguing the system would help more women and minorities to get elected.
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Noting that presidential candidates accepted federal financing in exchange for voluntary limits on campaign spending from 1976 until President Obama broke the tradition in 2008, Ravel argued the FEC should make the program more enticing by ramping up federal subsidies for presidential candidates, in addition to removing expenditure limits.
“Currently, only the first $250 of a contribution is matched on a one-to-one basis during the primary,” Ravel said. “Increasing the ratio may encourage more individuals to contribute to political campaigns and could encourage candidates to raise money from a broader base of supporters.”
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Ravel additionally proposed increasing the standard for participation in order to ensure the program is restricted to major party candidates. The proposal includes eliminating rules that prohibit coordination with national parties, raising the amount taxpayers are able to voluntarily direct towards the fund, and most notably, making the program available to candidates in all 535 House and Senate races across the nation.
“The same principles that support public funding for presidential candidates apply to congressional candidates: promoting participation in the political process, reducing the influence of large private campaign contributions, and relieving candidates of some of the burden of soliciting money,” Ravel argued.
Ravel is asking commissioners to formally endorse the recommendations for congressional consideration. The agency’s next public meeting is set for Thursday.
Commissioners have split over whether to impose new campaign finance regulations on a litany of occasions over the last several years. Ravel and fellow Democratic Commissioner Ellen Weintraub have proposed sweeping new rules for content posted online, including on social media, as well as cracking down on broadcast outlets like Fox News. Those efforts have largely failed, with Republicans on the evenly-split agency voting to thwart Democrats.
