VOE Questions for Candidate Forums


Help Us Make Money in Politics a Campaign Issue!

 

The impact of the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling has been profound. Millions and millions is now pouring into campaign coffers from corporations and often unknown sources. It is critical that we make money in politics a prominent issue during this year's campaign season and get candidates on the record regarding their stances on reforming campaign financing. If you hear of a candidate forum, can you let us know? And if you are attending, can you ask the candidates a version of the following questions and send any feedback to mollybeacham@democracy-nc.org?

Thanks if you can help -- and if you would like more background on the amount of money flooding into campaigns this year, often from secret sources, you can review more data on this year's campaign funding patterns here or review our Links of the Day on this topic here.

 

Suggested Forum Questions

 

Questions for U.S. House / U.S. Senate Candidates:

  • Do you support the Fair Elections Now Act, a voluntary public campaign financing program for Congressional candidates?

 

Questions for NC Legislative Candidates:

  • Do you support expansion of “voter-owned elections” or public campaign financing programs to more Council of State offices?
  • Will you support local authorization legislation to allow the state’s largest cities to experiment with local public campaign financing if they choose to do so?
  • The average cost of winning most competitive legislative races in North Carolina is now well over $100,000 and is a barrier to many good candidates who want to run for office.  Would you support creation of a public financing option for state legislative races?

Question for City / County Candidates:

  • Large amounts of money raised for local elections come from developers or businesses that are regulated by or get contracts from local governments. This creates both real and perceived conflicts of interest.  If elected, would you support passage of a state law to give NC counties and cities the authority to create public financing programs for local candidates? Would you then support such a program for your town?

Question for District / Superior Court Judicial candidates:

  • As you probably know, since 2004, Appellate Court candidates have been able to opt into a public campaign financing program to help finance their campaigns. Would you support a similar program for District / Superior Court races in North Carolina?