PHOENIX - A state lawmaker has proposed a ballot measure that would repeal funding for Arizona's public financing of political campaigns, saying the system's rules are enforced unevenly and that candidates are essentially penalized for not using that money for their campaigns.
If it's approved by the Legislature, the proposal by Republican Rep. Rick Murphy of Glendale would appear on the November ballot.
Voters approved the campaign finance system in 1998. It gives participating candidates for state offices public money if they collect a certain number of contributions of at least $5. The system, which is funded mostly by traffic and criminal fine surcharges, has been used in elections in 2000, 2002 and 2004 to provide funding for participating candidates for governor and numerous other state offices.
A judge threw out an initiative in 2004 that would have asked voters to repeal the system, ruling that the initiative violated the Arizona Constitution by posing two separate questions in one measure.
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"Clean Elections is an ill-conceived system that has been broken from the beginning and has become more unjust and even corrupt with each ensuing election cycle," Murphy said.
The Citizens Clean Elections Commission, which runs the system, considered an enforcement case against Murphy, who had accepted public funding for his 2004 legislative race. The commission dismissed the case but it's again considering allegations against Murphy.
Commission spokesman Michael Becker said the commission has tried to confront problems with the system.
"We are definitely doing our best to help the Legislature and the people of Arizona to have a system that gets better all the time," Becker said. "There's no such thing as a perfect system."
Last year, the commission concluded Republican Rep. David Burnell Smith of Scottsdale overspent his publicly funded 2004 primary election campaign by at least 10 percent, an amount that triggered a provision in state law to require his ouster. He has asked the Arizona Supreme Court to block his possible ouster.
The Clean Elections system has been criticized for reporting requirements imposed on nonparticipating candidates, a lack of adequate funding for candidates for some statewide offices and inequities in matching funds.
"This is morally repugnant to take taxpayer money and give it to politicians to run their elections," said Tom Jenney, executive director of the Arizona Federation of Taxpayers, which supports Murphy's proposal.
Supporters of the system said public financing is a way of keeping special interests from having too much influence on political races.
"It's far better to have a process where the elected officials are accountable to the voters in their districts and statewide," said Barbara Lubin, executive director of the Clean Elections Institute, a group that seeks to protect the law that created the system.
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