“Clean Money” Push Renewed For Alder Races

The head of the Democracy Fund’s board has put together updated — and more conservative — numbers to try to reopen a debate on offering public matching dollars in races for Board of Alders seats.

Right now New Haven has the state’s only municipal public-financing program, the Democracy Fund, and it covers only mayoral races.

Former administrator Ken Krayeske previously presented figures to the 30-member [then-named] Board of Aldermen about how much an expansion to aldermanic races would cost. The conversation got nowhere.

Now board Chair Jared Milfred has put together a new proposal with new figures.

“A crucial aspect of my proposal and my report is that there are far fewer contested races each year than [Krayeske’s] report to the aldermen,” Milfred said. ​“His report expected every race for aldermanic seats to be contested. But every election, there are actually only a handful of contested races. Funding just a few races would be far less costly.

Under public financing, a candidate qualifies for public funds by raising enough small contributions from local voters and swearing off contributions from outside committees. The program’s goal is to enable more candidates to compete for public office and to limit the influence of special-interest donors.

The Board of Alders was scheduled to vote on Oct. 6 to withdraw a 2011 proposal from former West Rock Alder Darnell Goldson to expand the Fund to aldermanic campaigns. The Board of Alders did not end up voting on the issue that night or demonstrating any interest in discussing it.

Joe Rodriguez, a former alder and Mayor Harp’s current legislative liaison to the Board of Alders, explained to Milfred at last week’s Democracy Fund board meeting that the idea was to withdraw the old proposal (as it was proposed three years ago and Goldson no longer serves on the board) and focus on drafting a new one. In other words, the reason behind moving to withdraw the old proposal was not meant to prevent the Fund from expanding to aldermanic campaigns, but rather to potentially reopen the conversation and have an updated proposal.

Milfred is up for it.

The Cost

Currently, the Fund gives mayoral candidates a lump sum grant of $19,000 if they receive 200 donations of $10 from New Haven residents. Qualifying candidates are also eligible for matching funds of up to $125,000 at a rate of 2 – 1 for the first $25 of each contribution. (For instance, a $10 donation becomes a $30 donation because of the Fund, $25 becomes $75, and $50 becomes $100.)

Milfred explained that policymakers would have to decide not only whether to extend the program to aldermen, but also what exactly the program would look like. If the Fund were to finance aldermanic races, it could adopt the existing system for mayoral races of a flat grant including matching funds. However, it could also choose perhaps just a flat grant with no matching funds, or no flat grant but matching funds. These decisions would alter how much the program would ultimately cost.

Milfred conducted some preliminary research to begin answering the question of how much it would cost the Fund to also cover aldermanic races. Milfred looked at a representative sample of 32 campaign filings (State Elections Enforcement Commission, or SEEC, Form 20s) of aldermanic races in 2009, 2011, and 2013

He found that on average, there have been roughly 10 candidates competing in contested general elections for alder and about 23 candidates in contested primary elections. The median cost of these 32 campaigns was $3,123 and the average was $3,367. (Milfred excluded the outliers, including a few who spent less than $1,000 and former Prospect Hill Alder Michael Stratton’s self-funded $20,773 campaign).

Milfred acknowledged the shortcomings of his findings, as how much the program costs depends on the final design of the program (i.e. whether it will be both a grant and matching funds, or only one). Milfred also noted that ​“the introduction of public campaign financing would likely have substantial effects on the number of contested races and the amount raised and spent per race, making the empirical data collected thus far, at best, a basis for an extrapolation.”

In order to expand the program, the Board of Alders would have to pass a new ordinance or resolution declaring the expansion of the Fund to aldermanic races, the SEEC would have to approve the proposal, and then it would become law, according to Milfred.

“We don’t want to take a political position. That’s for the [Board of Alders] to decide. But everyone on this board believes in public campaign finance, so anything that extends it is, in our minds, a good thing,” said former board Chair Patricia Kane.

In his preliminary report, Milfred said that he will eventually write a final report with an estimate of the cost based on both this initial data with survey data from alders.