News Release

August 26, 2002

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Government campaign financing doesn't increase election competition
Reform takes taxpayer money to advance private interests and actually favors certain candidates

WASHINGTON -- Although the Senate approved the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill earlier this year, such reform does not level the playing field as proponents contend, but rather allows taxpayer money to advance private interests, according to a new Cato Institute study.

In "Government Financing of Campaigns: Public Choice and Public Values," John Samples refutes the claims of finance-reform advocates and finds that government financing of campaigns does not make elections more competitive.

"Government financing of campaigns takes money from taxpayers and gives it to" a specific group of candidates, writes Samples, director of Cato's Center for Representative Government. "For that reason, government financing seems either unnecessary or immoral."

Samples also argues that individuals should not be forced to support candidates whose ideas may contradict their own values. Further, Samples finds that government financing tends to favor Democrats and other left-leaning candidates in states where full government financing of candidates exists.

For example, in the 2000 election in Arizona, 41 percent of Democratic candidates and 50 percent of Green Party candidates received public subsidies for their campaigns compared to 8 percent of Republicans, and no candidates from the Libertarian Party. The large gap between left- and right-leaning candidates who accepted public funding also existed in Maine's 2000 election.

Government financing also has a negligible effect on electoral competition. Comparing the 2000 election in Maine to the state's 1998 election, Samples's colleague, Senior Fellow Patrick Basham, found that the average margin of victory in both House and Senate races declined by an insignificant margin. Basham also concluded that the subsidized campaigning did not attract a significant number of independent and minor party candidates.

"Government Financing of Campaigns: Public Choice and Public Values"