A Model Clean Election

While the impetus to remove big money from politics is weak nationally, it has accelerated on the state level. Maine, Massachusetts and Arizona have all passed campaign finance reform laws, and North Carolina, Missouri and Oregon may soon follow. Most strikingly, in Vermont this year the governor's race, which features a third-party populist who never would have stood a chance in the old soft money system, is quickly showing how immediate the impact of clean elections can be.

In June, 1997 Vermont passed one of the most comprehensive campaign finance reform laws in the country and the signing of the "Clean Elections" bill was a generally festive occasion. Democratic Governor Howard Dean was on hand for congratulations and photos with the bill’s main architect, Anthony Pollina, whom he enthusiastically dubbed ‘Mr. Campaign Finance Reform’. Little did Dean know that he might become the law’s first casualty.

This year the Vermont Governor’s race will be decided for the first time on a financially level playing field, and the state Progressive Party, which has selected none other than Anthony Pollina as its candidate, is mounting a serious blitz on Dean. With nearly 20 years of grassroots organizing in the state, Pollina is a familiar face in Vermont politics. In Vermont’s 1984 congressional race, Pollina ran as a Rainbow/PUSH Coalition candidate and won the democratic primary. He lost the election but garnered 20 percent of the vote. "He’s experienced and very well respected." remarked April Jin, longtime Vergennes Democratic Party Chairman who recently resigned her post to join the Progressive Party. "There’s no doubt he can pull over a good number of liberal democrats."

With the exit of John McCain from the national race, the only one left still seriously talking about campaign finance reform is Ralph Nader. Both Bush and Gore have far too much to lose by touching the issue and the general consensus in Washington seems to be that campaign finance reform is headed nowhere. But, while the impetus to remove big money from politics has slowed nationally, it has accelerated on the state level. Maine, Massachusetts and Arizona have all passed campaign finance reform laws, with support for similar initiatives growing in North Carolina, Missouri and Oregon. In Vermont, the governor's race is quickly providing further indication of just how immediate the impact of clean elections can be. By opening the election to a third-party populist who otherwise never would have stood a chance in raising enough money to run, Vermont's clean elections law has also already begun reinvigorating real democratic debate and restoring the principle of "one person, one vote".

Though clearly the underdog, Pollina is experienced with the issues. He spent 5 years as a policy advisor to independent representative Bernie Sanders working on agricultural and environmental issues, later going on to found Rural Vermont, a farm lobby group. For the last 6 years Pollina has worked as a senior policy analyst at Vermont Public Interest Group (V-PIRG), and besides pioneering the campaign finance law, he also led such efforts as the push to put a check on Vermont’s ever-expanding ‘factory farms’ and agro-businesses, and more recently, a bill that would make Vermont the first state in the country with an across-the-board price cap on all prescription drugs.

In June, Pollina became the first gubernatorial candidate as well as the first statewide candidate in the country to qualify for clean election funds. He did so by collecting $35,000 from at least 1500 individual in-state contributions of no more than $50 each-- no small feat in a state for which an election season on average brings in fewer than 1000 contributions for an incumbent. "It was extremely difficult. In some places we received checks as low as 60 cents. At times even I’m amazed that we pulled it off." commented Ellen David Friedman, Pollina’s campaign director. "With an all volunteer staff, we canvassed campuses, tabled the county fairs, went door-to-door in every district, held spaghetti dinners in town halls, walked parades, went to union locals. Really, we did it all..." David Friedman explained while standing in her kitchen alongside her teenage son who, with a team of other students, toured the neighborhoods signing up several hundred new voters. "The only things we didn’t do were mass mailings and newspaper inserts since the campaign simply didn’t have the money for that."