Public Financing of MoCo Elections

People who support good government generally support the idea of public financing of elections. MoCo Council Member Phil Andrews has introduced a bill to start this in MoCo, after the Maryland General Assembly authorized it last year.

However, during the meeting of the MoCo Council's Government Operations and Fiscal Policy Committee, it was pointed out that the proposal contains a provision that has hardly been noticed --- and that apparently cannot be eliminated by the County Council because it is in the State's authorizing legislation.

That provision would prohibit a candidate who is receiving public financing from contributing any of that money to another political group. For example, Democratic candidates would no longer be able to buy ads in the MCDCC Spring Ball booklet. This would mean a drastic cut in the finances of MCDCC and its Republican counterparts.

Hopefully this will be examined and some way to fix it will be found.