Litigation

Judge Inclined to Overturn AZ Public Financing Law?

By Peter Hardin

Campaign finance rules have come under attack on a number of fronts, and now it appears that a federal judge may be preparing to invalidate a public financing system for statewide and legislative offices in Arizona.

U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver said in a preview of a final ruling that she likely would prohibit Arizona’s system of providing matching funds for competing candidates on grounds it violates candidates’ First Amendment rights to express their views, according to an article in the Arizona Republic.

Final oral arguments in a constitutional test of Arizona’s Clean Elections system were scheduled for today.

“Without the matching funds in place, the voters are not going to have the opportunity to hear both sides of the story,” said Todd Lang, executive director of Citizens Clean Elections Commission. “They’ll see attack ads without matching funds, they won’t hear the responses. There will be less free speech and political ideas.”

Tim Keller, executive director of the Institute for Justice Arizona Chapter, took an opposite stance. He said, “Now Arizonans can support the candidate of their choice without having to fear that the government is going to put their thumb on the scales and tip them in favor of a publicly funded candidate they oppose.” He is representing gubernatorial candidate Dean Martin, the current state treasurer, and several other plaintiffs.

Wisconsin recently became the third state to adopt public financing for state appellate court elections. You can read about its law, and about debates over legality of public financing plans for judicial elections, in Gavel Grab.

Full post as published by The Gavel on January 15, 2010 (boomark / email).