| Voter-Owned Elections Lobby Day |
This year's reform lobby day will be held June 17th at the NC General Assembly.
With two major reform bills on the verge of passing this legislative session, your participation is especially crucial right now.
Click here to learn more about lobby day.
State legislators need to hear from their constituents about these important bills. Come to Raleigh on June 17th and help us win these vital reforms. View the day's schedule.
Help us build a system that truly allows citizens to be in charge of our democracy! Help make our elections more open and our government more accountable!
Click here to register to attend.
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| U.S. Supreme Court Says Money Matters |
In a 5-4 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a citizen’s right to due process requires that judges recuse themselves from cases where their impartiality might reasonably be questioned.
The issue at hand in Caperton v. Massey was whether West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Brent Benjamin was required to recuse himself in a case that involved his largest campaign contributor.
This is a victory for the rule of law and the guarantee every citizen has to receive a hearing untainted by campaign contributions.
It will likely be a boost in our efforts to allow candidates to run without having to take money from special interest groups.
Read NCVCE's statement on the case.
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| NC House Passes Municipal Public Campaigns |
In a close 60-56 vote, HB-120 passes the state House on third reading.
The bill authorizes municipalities with more than 50,000 residents to create local public financing programs similar to the system created by Chapel Hill last year.
It now heads for approval in the state Senate.
Click here to view our press release.
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| Voter-Owned Elections Expansion Bills |
There are three main initiatives to expand Voter-Owned Elections this year: to most of the Council of State, to municipalities (authorization only), and to the legislature (pilot only)
The Council of State bills would expand the successful program to five additional statewide offices.
The municipal bill would merely authorize cities to create programs if they meet certain guidelines and local governments approve it.
And the legislative bill would create a small VOE pilot in three Senate and six House districts that would begin in the 2012 election.
Click here for more details and bill summaries.
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| Bill Filed to Expand Successful Council of State Program |
A bill filed in the House today would expand the state's successful Council of State program to the entire Council of State minus Governor and Lt. Governor
The new offices would include the Attorney General, State Treasurer, Commissioner of Labor, Commissioner of Agriculture, and Secretary of State
The bill is being sponsored by Rep. Rick Glazier (D-Cumberland), Rep. Deborah Ross (D-Wake), Rep. Grier Martin (D-Wake), and Rep. Ray Rapp (D-Madison) and co-sponsored by 50 other House members.
Click here to read our press release
In 2008 the program was widely seen as successful with high participation, an increase in grassroots campaigning, and a dramatic drop in the fundraising role of regulated industries.
Click here to read a report on the success of the program.
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| Chapel Hill Approves Local Voter-Owned Elections |
With a final ordinance approved last week, the town of Chapel Hill has become the third municipality to offer a full public financing option for candidates running for municipal office.
This is a huge victory for campaign reform and comes after a near ten year effort to create the program in the town.
The program will be available to candidates running in this year's municipal elections.
As Chapel Hill initiatives its first run, other municipalities across the state will be watching closely as they consider creating programs of their own. They may soon have that right if legislation authorizing other municipalities to create public financing programs is approved by the NC General Assembly this year (HB-120).
Click here to learn more about how their program will work.
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| Public Financing Authorization Bill Clears House Election Law |
A bill that would allow cities to create fairer, more accountable local elections has received a favorable report from the House Election Law committee.
HB-120 would authorize municipal governments to create a local public financing program for their local elections.
Currently, the town of Chapel Hill is the only municipality in North Carolina that has been authorized to create a program.
The bill now moves to the House Judiciary II committee.
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| 2009 Legislative Agenda |
NCVCE is excited to announce our 2009 Legislative Agenda
We will be working with our partners to launch three Voter-Owned Elections bills this legislative session.
The first is a municipal authorization bill that will allow municipalities to create public financing programs for local elections and open up mayoral and council service to all citizens regardless of wealth. View HB-120.
The second is a bill to expand our state's successful Council of State Voter-Owned Elections program to additional statewide offices, including State Treasurer, Attorney General, and Commissioner of Labor.
Finally, we will be introducing a bill to create a Voter-Owned Elections pilot for the state legislature.
Click here to view our full 2009 legislative agenda.
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| Insurance Industry No Longer Bankrolling Top Insurance Job |
Candidates running for the state's top insurance job are no longer receiving most of their campaign financing from the insurance industry because of a new public campaign financing program.
According to the study conducted by NCVCE, the percentage of campaign money taken from the insurance industry and other industries directly regulated by the state insurance agency dropped from 66% in 2004 to 5% in 2008.
This drop was possible because of a new public financing program available for Commissioner of Insurance candidates and two other Council of State offices which began this year.
Because the program gave candidates an alternative way to finance their campaigns, they didn't fundraise as much from regulated groups. As a result, special interests spent just 1/6th of what they did in 2004 on the Commissioner of Insurance race, despite this year's race being more competitive.
Read the report.
Read a press release about the report.
View a PDF version of the report.
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| Something We Can All Agree On |
Republican John Odom and Democrat Wayne Goodwin are both running for Insurance Commissioner and are both using North Carolina's new public campaign financing program
They've written a joint guest column about the merits of Voter-Owned Elections and how its transformed their campaigns. Click here to read it.
While they don't agree on much, they do agree that 'there shouldn't be any question of a conflict of interest when it comes to our state's top executives, whether Republican or Democrat.'
We couldn't have said it better!
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| Record Number of Candidates Are Voter-Owned this Election |
11 of 12 candidates running for the state’s top appellate courts and four of six candidates running for eligible Council of State offices are using North Carolina's innovative system of public campaign financing. These candidates are relying solely on small donor and public support this election cycle and are barred from all big dollar contributions and donations from special interest groups.
Instead of 'dialing for dollars,' these candidates are on the campaign trail meeting average voters instead.
Overall, 67% of eligible Council of State candidates and 92% of eligible judicial candidates are signed up. In both programs there is broad participation among Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, men and women, and challengers and incumbents.
View the full list of candidates who qualified.
View NCVCE's Press Release on the candidates who qualified.
Click here for a one-page fact sheet on the program.
If you have any questions please call (919)521-4121.
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Say
yes to fairness, say YES to the Public Campaign Fund.
To
learn how you can protect the integrity of our courts, visit www.ncjudges.org.
