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The Fair and Clean Elections Bill (SF 388/HF 567) The goal of this legislation is to restore Minnesotans' faith in elections. Problems: • Large contributions give the impression that special interests have undue influence over the outcome of political campaigns and legislative votes. • Campaign spending has become excessive. • Independent expenditures are setting the tone of campaigns, making campaigns less issue- oriented and more subject to the influence of big money. Proposed Solution: . Establishes full public funding for elections. . Places limits on the size of contributions to parties and legislative caucuses. . Provides matching money to respond to independent expenditures. Qualification � Candidates have to qualify by collecting a prescribed number of signatures and "qualify- ing contributions" of $5 * $50 from eligible voters. For legislative candidates, at least 112 of the contributions must come from residents of their district. Convention, primary & general election funding Provides timely funding, upon qualification (as early as January 1st of an election year) with additional payments before the primary election, and, for candidates who win the primary, before the general election Non-participating candidates and independent expenditures In order to make sure that they can compete, Fair and Clean Elections candidates who are outspent by privately financed opponents, or target- ed by independent expenditures, are entitled to a limited amount of matching funds. The system will promote positive. as opposed to negative, ads by providing candidates with more matching money to respond to nega- tive ads than to positive ones. Contribution limits to political parties & legislative caucuses -To address the undue influ- ence that can result from sizable contributions to the political parties and legislative caucuses, the Fair and Clean Elections bill limits the size of these contributions. These limits are set at a level at which the parties and legislative caucuses can maintain their party-building activities. but cannot be unduly influenced by large donors. Cost � For 2004 in which only the Douse of Representatives are up for election, the FACE system will cost a little less than what we are currently spending on campaigns. Thereafter the costs will vary depending upon the election cycle. but will average $6.53 million more than we're already spending on elections per year, which is about S 1.87 per taxpayer per year. This estimate is based on generous assumptions regarding the cost of Fair and Clean Elections grants to participating candidates and the amount of matching funds needed to respond to independent expenditures and excess spending by privately financed candidates. MN FACE Prepared by Minnesotans fiw Fair and Clean Elections FF1 call Beth Fraser at 651-641-4050. Updated 1102 y