Overview
The rash of recent scandals at both the state and national level has proved one thing — special interest dollars are drowning out the voices of ordinary Tar Heels. When big money dominates politics, people lose out. Elected officials become more responsive to the demands of wealthy special interests and less concerned with the problems of North Carolina’s citizens.
Many politicians rely on large amounts of special interest money to finance their campaigns, and this money usually determines who wins. In fact, Democracy North Carolina reports that the top-spending candidate for each seat in the legislature won 84 percent of the time during the three election cycles leading up to 2000. This cost of winning an election forces our state officials into a money chase that ultimately ends with dollars from special interests and favors for special interests.
That’s why NCPIRG supports clean elections for all statewide elected officials. A clean elections system would give candidates the option to finance their campaigns using a publicly supported fund only after they have garnered a significant number of small contributions from their constituents. Clean elections will enable candidates to spend their time engaging voters on substantive issues, rather than catering to wealthy special interests, and that’s exactly what North Carolina needs.
