Several St. Louis-area election reform groups want to set up a public financing system for St. Louis County elections, which they say would help build trust in elected officials.
“People look at the people-backed candidates, and they look at who's on the side of big money, and they're voting for the people-backed candidates,” said Benjamin Singer of Show Me Integrity during an appearance on the Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air.
Show Me Integrity, a group that advocates overhauling elections laws, joined with Forward Through Ferguson, A Red Circle and Empower Missouri to produce the Honest Elections Report that details the public financing plan.
The proposal would set up a dedicated tax to give eligible St. Louis County voters $25 certificates that could be directed to candidates running for posts like county executive, prosecutor, assessor and county council.
In order to participate, candidates must agree to a number of things — including not asking contributors to donate to political action committees. It’s modeled on a plan in Seattle known as Democracy Dollars, which Singer said increased attention and participation in local government.
“They saw more candidates running who were more diverse,” Singer said. “And in policy, they saw more affordable housing, more job training programs, more things to create inclusive growth for the region — which I know is what all St. Louisans want.”
University of Missouri-St. Louis political science professor Anita Manion helped gather campaign finance data for the report. She said that in the last decade of county elections, a relatively small number of donors ended up providing money for elections.
“We found that not only is there a lot of money in those elections, but it disproportionately comes from large-dollar donors and from white men — and flows to white male candidates,” Manion said. “And so our research showed that candidates who are women and people of color have a harder time raising that money. They can raise as much, and they often do. But it's a lot more small-dollar donations, and they often have to go out of state to get those.”
Singer said the money for the program could come from dedicated taxes on online goods or other sources. But Manion acknowledged that the most difficult part of getting this program running is convincing voters that it’s worth the public outlay.
St. Louis County has experienced chronic budgetary problems, and residents and political leaders may be hesitant to create a tax for publicly funding campaigns.
“The funding would be the biggest challenge in getting approval,” Manion said. “I think overall, the concept is very popular.”
Singer said it’s possible that supporters of this idea could try to gather signatures to put it on a future St. Louis County ballot.
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