A proposal to allow public financing of campaigns to win a seat in the Maryland Legislature has been slowed down for several days by the Senate leadership, with objections raised about its cost and little time to take action on the plan.
The proposal?s backers, which include organizations such as Progressive Maryland, Common Cause and the League of Women Voters, said public campaign financing is necessary to counteract the influence of corporate contributions.
The bill (SB 546) by Sen. Paul Pinsky, D-Prince George?s, would allow candidates for the state Senate to receive more than $90,000 in public funding if they qualify by raising at least $5 each from at least 350 contributors. If they accepted public funding, they would be allowed to spend no more than $50,000 for a primary contest and $50,000 for the general election.
“If you think you?re going to have a multimillion-dollar campaign, you?re probably not going to be part of this,” Pinsky said.
The legislation would not permit political parties, unions, or special House or Senate campaign committees to contribute funds over the campaign limits once the candidate agrees to accept them.
Once Pinsky explained those restrictions on party fundraising to his Senate colleagues on Monday, Sen. Alex Mooney, R-Frederick, said, “I?m shocked that this bill is out here on the floor.”
“There are a couple of us like that,” said Senate President Thomas Mike Miller from the rostrum, generating laughter from some senators. Miller over the years has raised millions of campaign donations for fellow Democrats that he contributes to maintain his party?s control of the Senate.
The public financing would be largely funded from abandoned property, mostly inactive and forgotten bank accounts, that is now put in the general funded when they are not claimed. But recognizing the expected $1.5 billion structural deficit next year, the legislation was changed so that it would not go into effect until the state raised $1 billion in new revenues.
Pinsky had barely finished explaining the bill when Sen. Ulysses Currie, the chairman of the Budget and Taxation Committee, asked that further discussion of the bill be put off until Friday. Both Pinsky and Sen. Joan Carter Conway, D-Baltimore City, a co-sponsor and chairman of the committee that approved the bill, were surprised.
“It is kind of late,” with only four days left in the session, Conway said.
