State Public Campaign Finance: Implications for Partisan Politics

Abstract

Between 1972 and 1980 seventeen states enacted legislation to provide public funding of state-level election campaigns. These public campaign funding programs vary on four key policy dimensions. States are treated as laboratories of in which variations on a common policy have been introduced and are examined systematically. Assessment of the partisan impact of public campaign policies reveals that the majority party is generally advantaged in absolute dollar amounts regardless of policy variations. However, depending on the procedures of collecting and allocating funds, minority parties may gain more from public funding programs than their numerical strength in the electorate would warrant. The logical consequences of different patterns of collection and allocation policies for majority and minority candidates and parties are presented and questions about the impact of public campaign finance reform on practical electoral and party politics in the states are raised.