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Day two of David Pecker testimony wraps in NY Trump trial; Supreme Court hears arguments on Idaho's near-total abortion ban; ND sees a flurry of campaigning among Native candidates; and NH lags behind other states in restricting firearms at polling sites.

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The Senate moves forward with a foreign aid package. A North Carolina judge overturns an aged law penalizing released felons. And child protection groups call a Texas immigration policy traumatic for kids.

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Wyoming needs more educators who can teach kids trade skills, a proposal to open 40-thousand acres of an Ohio forest to fracking has environmental advocates alarmed and rural communities lure bicyclists with state-of-the-art bike trail systems.

Court Axes Match Money for AZ’s Publicly-Funded Candidates

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Wednesday, June 9, 2010   

PHOENIX, Ariz. - Matching funds for candidates running under Arizona's Clean Elections system of public campaign financing have been blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court. Under the voter-approved system, candidates being outspent by privately-funded opponents can get a limited amount of extra money to help them compete.

Linda Brown, director of the Arizona Advocacy Network, says the court's action puts publicly funded candidates in peril.

"With 150 already having opted to run 'clean' and 40 having received their funding, including two of the gubernatorial candidates, this throws a lot of our election into chaos."

Without matching funds, Gov. Jan Brewer will be limited to $700,000 in the August Republican primary, while her privately-funded opponent, Buz Mills, already has spent more than $2.3 million. Private-money candidates argue that matching funds limit their free speech by discouraging them from raising additional campaign money.

With matching funds gone, Brown says publicly-funded candidates run the risk of having their viewpoints drowned out by wealthy candidates using private money. She points to California, where a former CEO running for governor spent $81 million on her primary campaign alone.

"It's very troubling to think that elections will go back to being up for sale to the highest bidder. The losers, in that case, are always the American people - the voting public."

When they voted for public campaign funding, Arizonans made clear that they want elections decided on the ideas of the candidates, Brown says, not on who spends the most money.

"The courts are going in the exact opposite direction and further empowering corporate interests to have greater control over who gets to run for public office and who holds public office, and therefore who makes public policy."

Brown hopes the state legislature will meet in special session to somehow resolve the matching funds issue for the current election cycle. The Supreme Court's action ultimately could affect other states with matching fund programs, such as New Mexico, Maine, Connecticut and North Carolina.



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