Greens back public financing for elections

From the Globe Political Desk

Green Party leaders were in Sacramento last week to testify in favor of legislation that would create public financing of elections for all political parities, including third parties like the Greens, and reduce the influence of special interests in politics.
    Assembly Bill 583 had its first test in the upper house Wednesday in the Senate Elections Committee.
    Authored by Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), the bill was approved by the full Assembly on a 47-31 vote late last year.
   “This bill is a good start toward providing a better government to voters,” said Dr. Forrest Hill, the Secretary of State candidate for the Green Party of California. “It will diminish the perception of corruption in politics and will allow independent voices es of smaller political parties a better opportunity to be heard.”
    Previously the Green Party of California and other groups opposed AB 583 because they believed it made it too difficult for smaller political parties to qualify for public financing. After the author made changes to the bill, the Greens agreed to support it.
   “We support the legislation as it is now written because the public financing of campaigns will allow lawmakers to focus their time on the public’s business instead of spending 50 percent or more of their time fishing for dollars from special interests,” said Hill.
    The California Clean Money and Fair Elections Act establishes a voluntary system of public funding of campaigns similar to those in Arizona, Connecticut and Maine. Candidates from all parties and independents could qualify for millions of dollars in public campaign funding by following a set of rules designed to limit the influence of special interests.
    Smaller party candidates would have to collect thousands of $5 donations — twice as many as their Democratic and Republican counterparts — to qualify, but could still be entitled to millions of dollars in campaign financing for legislative and statewide elections.