Public Campaign Financing

Final Campaign Public Financing Advisory Committee Reports:

• Majority Report
• Minority Report

In the 2008 legislative session, The Washington State Legislature passed a bill allowing local governments in Washington to develop ways to allow public financing of election campaigns. The legislation allows cities and counties to craft what their local programs look like, so long as voters approve the plan at the ballot box.

I’ve been working jointly with my colleagues and the Mayor, and we have created Campaign Public Financing Advisory Committee that will research the issue and make a recommendation to the Council for further action. 

The advisory group will consider the many issues wrapped up in local financing (such as the overall reason for a public financing system, how someone might qualify for the program, how much it could cost, what kind of timeline Seattle would need to implement it, how Seattle’s previous financing model worked, trends in campaign contributions and unintended consequences of public financing), and report back to Council by June 12.

The Campaign Public Financing Advisory Committee members are:

• Michele Radosevich, Chair of the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission
• Bruce Laing, Former King County Councilmember
• Allison Feher, Representative of the Seattle League of Women Voters
• Ramsey Ramerman, Representative of the Seattle-King County Municipal League
• Craig Salins, Executive Director of the Washington Public Campaigns organization
• Bob Mahon, Partner at Perkins Coie law firm, with expertise in elections law
• Professor Joaquin G. Avila, Professor at Seattle University School of Law, with an academic background in campaigns
• Rob Holland, At-large member from the community and Chair of the 37th District Democrats
• George Cheung, At-large member from the community and electoral analyst
• Sherry Collier, Lawyer and member of the Seattle Urban League Young Professionals Organization, Alternate

There are more than a dozen cities that already have programs, and all report varying models and varying degrees of success and failure. A few are truly cautionary tales about setting out to do the right thing and ending up with the wrong program.  Once we hear back from the advisory group in June, the Council will work with the Mayor to see if it’s possible to build a well-thought-out program for consideration by voters this fall.

If you’d like to submit public comment to the Advisory Task Force, please email Dan Nolte from my office, and he will provide your comments to all of the task force members.

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