Progress Toward Publicly Financed Campaigns in Colorado
and Involvement by LWVCO and Local Leagues:
The League of Women Voters, both national and state, has long been a supporter of campaign finance reform, especially for presidential candidates, but also for other candidates. Publicly financed campaigns (PFC) is one such reform effort.
In April of 2006, The Interfaith Alliance of CO (TIA-CO) started the discussion of PFC for Colorado with a forum titled Publicly Financed Elections: An Investment in the Common Good. The panel included individuals from Arizona and Maine (where publicly financed campaigns already were implemented), as well as representatives from Colorado Common Cause and the Rocky Mountain Region Public Campaign group. The President of LWVCO (League of Women Voters of CO) and a few members attended the forum. DVDs of this forum were made available to all Colorado local Leagues, at the State Council meeting in Salida in May 2006.
In September 2006, the local League in La Plata County, Colorado, held a forum focusing on the pros and cons of publicly financed campaigns. Also that September, LWVUS (League of Women Voters of US) was one of several co-sponsors for a conference in Washington, D.C. titled Seize The Moment which dealt with PFC. A representative from the TIA-CO group (that worked on the April 2006 Forum) attended this national conference.
During the summer and fall of 2006, a group of independent individuals and representatives from several organizations (e.g., TIA-CO and BeTheChange) began meeting to discuss how to get a movement started
in Colorado. The goal was to develop an option for public financing of campaigns for state legislators and statewide offices. One or two representatives of LWVCO attended most of these discussions and frequently reminded the group about the importance of public information/education.
A core group of 20 to 30 individuals emerged out of the approximately 100 who initially participated in the discussions. This group adopted the name Clean Campaigns Colorado (CCC) + a phrase first suggested by BeTheChange. CCC registered with the Colorado Secretary of State's Office as an issue committee in February of 2007. From June through November of 2007, a smaller drafting committee (6 to 10 people) worked on a proposal for legislation. LWVCO was not involved in this step.
After CCC completed a 29-page draft of a proposal for legislation (A Program for Publicly Financed Election Campaigns), it was distributed to many individuals and organizations (including LWVCO) with a request for feedback and suggestions for improvement. LWVCO continued to recommend a major effort be placed on public education and the development of materials to serve that purpose. This input along with suggestions from other individuals/organizations led CCC, in February 2008, to prepare a detailed outline summarizing the key features of the proposed legislation. They also prepared some flyers and an information sheet explaining why certain features of the proposal were developed.
In May of 2008, LWVCO distributed CCC information packets to local Leagues at the State Council meeting in Durango. In her cover letter, Alice Ramsey, VP for Program, indicated that the CCC legislative proposal was a work in progress and the Colorado League had been asked to provide feedback. LWVCO decided to ask local Leagues for their reactions to the proposal.
In the fall of 2008, the League of Women Voters of Boulder County (LWVBC) started a new committee to work on the topic of publicly financed campaigns (PFC). In the spring of 2009, PFC Committee members presented information at LWVBC unit meetings about the specific proposal made in 2008 by Clean Campaigns Colorado. These unit meetings also included a brief discussion of the federal legislation that had been introduced in the US House and Senate in 2007 (option of public funding for Congressional candidates). In addition, there was a brief review of the Boulder initiative adopted in 1999 to provide the option of public funding for City Council candidates. Questions and suggestions from these unit meetings were compiled and sent to LWVCO, which provided feedback to the Clean Campaigns Colorado committee. This feedback was used by CCC to make some revisions and/or clarifications in their proposal.
In the spring of 2009, the CCC committee contacted a few state legislators to introduce the proposal and determine if they would be interested in sponsoring it as a bill to go through the legislative process. While some legislators expressed interest in the proposal and/or made suggestions, no one was willing to take on the challenge of sponsoring such a bill.
During the fall of 2009, CCC set up a web site to facilitate communication with those who wanted to learn more about their proposal. The web site (cleancampaignscolorado.com) allows interested individuals to follow the discussion regarding the introduction of publicly financed campaigns in Colorado, as well as the progress in states where such programs have been implemented.
A new title for the proposed legislation was selected in January 2010: Colorado Citizen-Funded Campaigns (CCFC). At that point, the proposal was submitted to the Legislative Council for review as a citizens' initiative. In the first two months of 2010, two related forums occurred: one by the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado (Taxes, an Investment in the Common Good) and one by BeTheChange. The latter presented information regarding CCC activities and provided an update about what was happening in Maine, Arizona, and Connecticut.
Several suggestions made by Legislative Council were integrated into the proposal. The review and comment hearings with the Legislative Council were completed by the end of March; Initiative number 53 was assigned to the CCFC proposal. The CCC Committee filed for a Title Board hearing and passed that hurdle on April 7. The Secretary of State's Office reviewed sample petition packets and granted approval before the end of April. Petitions were printed and the process of circulating petitions begun. When it became clear that the required number of signed petitions for Initiative 53 could not be acquired by the deadline, Initiative 53 was abandoned. It will not appear on the 2010 ballot.
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