News-Record.com

The N.C. Voters for Clean Elections group did a presser by the old state capitol today to talk up North Carolina's Council of State pilot.

For the uninitiated: the Council of State is made up of 10 officials elected statewide, including the governor and lt. governor, treasurer, agriculture commissioner and others. This year, candidates in three of those offices - Insurance Commissioner, Superintendent of Public Instruction and Auditor - can opt into a public financing system.

Those who participate need to collect 750 small dollar donations, defined as contributions between $10 and $200. In exchange, they get a minimum of $300,000 in taxpayer funding to wage their campaign.

"I want to say I'm sorry to anyone out there that I'm using their tax dollars and they don't want me to really win this race," said State Auditor Les Merritt, the Republican incumbent in the office.

He points out one of the big objections to publicly financed elections, which is that public money - your money - can go to finance a candidate who you find objectionable or who says objectionable things.

The JWP Civitas Institute, a conservative think tank, argued against the act when it was coming through the legislature last year and you can find their objections here. More here.

A major upside is that candidates who otherwise couldn't run are getting in the race. Both Fred Aikens and Beth Wood, the two Democrats running for Auditor, said they would not be in the race if it weren't for the public financing program.

The most interesting moments from today's newser revolved around the Superintendent of Public Instruction race. Democrats June Atkinson, the incumbent, and Eddie Davis have opted into the program, as has Republican Eric Smith, of Reidsville. Republicans Richard Morgan, former co-speaker of the House, and Joe Johnson have not opted in yet and aren't expected to.

"Voter owned elections means it will be harder for special interests to impact this election," Smith said. "In the past, the special interest group in my race was the North Carolina Association of Educators. I'm glad that these labor bosses now support voter owned elections and I call on them not to defeat the spirit of the law by spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in independent expenditures."

Scott Mooneyham of The Insider asked all three superintendent candidates to talk about the potential for independent expenditures.

"I would encourage anyone who is looking at that to recognize the importance of this program and decide not to do that," Davis said.

Atkins also said the independent 527s would undermine the public financing.

Why does this come up in this particular context.

Well, one reason could be that Davis heads the N.C. Association of Educators, an affiliate of the NEA. The NEA is running independent ads that stop a half-step short of being campaign ads but sure do talk up Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue, who they have endorsed.

Morgan, another Republican in the race, also used a 527 during his time as co-speaker.

So if a 527 or like organization were to engage in this race, it might be contrary to the spirit of public financing, but no one would count it as a surprise.