Legislature creates path to end public campaign finance

Taxpayers may not have to support political candidates much longer, raising questions about whether running for office statewide going forward will be a rich person’s game exclusively if that’s what voters want.

The House passed without debate two pieces of legislation already approved by the Senate that would end public campaign finance provisions instituted nearly four decades before.

Sen. Travis Hutson’s measure (SJR 1114) was passed by an 82-29 vote.

It will, if signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, let voters this year decide in a referendum whether they want to end the provision that has been in effect since the Legislature passed it in 1986 — an era in which Florida and its campaign finance looked very different from the way they do today in some ways, but nonetheless saw some dynamics familiar to people of today.

“The Legislature finds that the costs of running an effective campaign for statewide office have reached a level which tends to discourage persons from becoming candidates and to limit the persons who run for such office to those who are independently wealthy, who are supported by political committees representing special interests which are able to generate substantial campaign contributions, or who must appeal to special interest groups for campaign contributions,” reads the language currently in statute.

The money at stake is not insignificant. Roughly $13 million was spent in 2022 and $10 million in 2018 on subsidizing candidates. DeSantis, who will have to sign off on this bill in the end, drew down more than $7 million in his re-election effort.

The House also passed by an 83-29 vote Hutson’s SB 1116, which is an implementing bill for the amendment if passed that would repeal sections relevant to the Florida Election Campaign Financing Act on the effective date of the amendment.

The implications of the legislative decision and the likelihood of this being on the ballot later this year earned comment from Common Cause Florida, which noted that the “resolution goes against the will of Florida voters, who have already affirmed their support for the Public Campaign Financing System on two separate occasions, in 1998 and 2010.”

“Legislators have ignored the voices of Floridians by making voters return to the ballot box for a third time on this. Common Cause Florida is committed to educating Florida voters about this anti-democratic bill and ensuring that our democracy works for everyone, not just a select few,” the group added.