Clean money repo men - political reform agency in Massachusetts has power to seize government-provided cars from corrupt politicians

Progressive, The, June, 2002 by John Nichols

David Donnelly, the director of Massachusetts Voters for Clean Elections, summed up the goal of the Massachusetts law when he announced after the vote, "The people of Massachusetts have spoken loud and clear; they want to end big money's dominance in the Bay State's election campaigns."

The easiest way to understand how the law was intended to work is to put yourself in the shoes of James O'Keefe, the Green Party candidate for state treasurer. O'Keefe is not a typical candidate for the office. He talks about using the position to battle corporate welfare.

"The state treasurer's office must ensure that values such as social justice, nonviolence, democracy, and ecology are reflected in the state's investments," he says.

That's not a recipe for collecting lots of special interest money from the brokers and bankers who usually fund campaigns for such positions. But O'Keefe is running as a "clean money" candidate, which means he has to collect 3,000 contributions of less than $100 each to qualify for public financing of his campaign. Small contributions of $5 are encouraged and count toward the 3,000 total. If O'Keefe gets the 3,000 contributions by the early June deadline, as he almost certainly will, he should qualify for $600,000 in Clean Elections funding from the state. Additionally, if one of his opponents refuses to abide by the Clean Elections Law spending limit for the race, O'Keefe would be entitled to receive additional funding from the state--up to twice the spending limit.

For a candidate like O'Keefe, the law promises a level playing field that Greens rarely have access to in American politics. Indeed, if the law works as intended, Massachusetts Green Party gubernatorial candidate Jill Stein could qualify for initial public funding of $2,550,000 and millions more in matching funds if Mitt Romney, the wealthy Republican candidate, exceeds the spending limits.

"The prospect of running a campaign with clean money is really what drew me into the campaign," says Stein. "The idea of connecting public interest ideas with public financing is just incredible. I think that one of the reasons that the Democrats who are in charge of the legislature have fought so hard to block this is because they recognize that the potential for a political breakthrough by the Greens is enormous."

But enormous potential ran up against an enormous roadblock. On victory night, 1998, Donnelly said, "The Massachusetts state legislature should listen to this overwhelming mandate from the voters." While many legislators were willing to do just that, the man who controlled the flow of legislation and money, Speaker Finneran, was definitely not on board. An old-school Democratic politician who delights in wielding the power of his office to reward friends and punish foes, Finneran was smart enough to see the threat to his reign that was inherent in a law designed to thwart the influence of the special interest groups.

As candidates began gearing up for this year's contests for governor, down-ticket statewide offices, and the state legislature, Finneran and his circle of allies made no secret of their determination to deep-six the Clean Elections Law. The Speaker derided public financing of campaigns as a "welfare program for aspiring politicians, most of whom are so pathetic that they can't even stand on their own two feet." He spewed venom at candidates who sought to qualify for the program, especially those from third parties. And he complained that the law's very name was an insult to "honest politicians" because it suggested that money collected from private donors was "dirty."