The challenge
City campaigns depended on large donors from a few wealthy neighbourhoods, inviting undue influence.
The case
New York City’s Campaign Finance Board runs a voluntary public financing program. By 2009 it matched the first $175 a city resident gave to a participating candidate at six to one. A 2012 study by the Brennan Center and the Campaign Finance Institute compared 2009 City Council races with 2010 State Assembly races in the same city, which had no matching. Small donors to council candidates came from 89% of the city’s census block groups, against 30% for Assembly candidates. Poor and largely Black neighbourhoods such as Bedford-Stuyvesant had about 24 times more small donors to council races. Participating council candidates raised 37% of their private money from donors giving $250 or less, versus 15% for non-participants.
Why it worked
A generous match makes small gifts worth chasing, so candidates turn to ordinary residents across the whole city rather than a few big donors. The evidence is a comparison of two election types, not an experiment, but the gap is very large.
Sources
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