Today the Supreme Court will be hearing McComish v. Bennett and Arizona Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett, two cases which challenge the Grand Canyon State’s matching-grant election program (it provides extra public funds to subsidize political campaign speech for certain candidates). Over at the Yankee Institute, executive director Fergus Cullen teams with Goldwater Institute attorney Nick Dranias to publish a compelling essay explaining why taxpayer-funded political campaigns violate the First Amendment, and why “clean” elections seeking “level playing fields” create a process that is dirty and pit-filled.

No one particularly likes negative political ads. Having them paid for with tax dollars is worse. But what’s most offensive is when government uses public funds to help some candidates while discouraging others from speaking to voters.
That’s what happens in campaigns for state offices in Arizona, Connecticut, Maine, and six other states with so-called “clean elections” laws. . . .
Going back to Buckley v Valeo, the court has sanctioned the use of public campaign funding as one means of curbing political corruption. But “clean elections” laws go too far, seeing the taint of special interest and implied graft in every gesture of support for a candidate. It seems beyond the imagination of advocates of taxpayer financed campaigns that some people contribute their time or money to candidates simply because they agree on the issues and want to help, or that one candidate might raise more money because she’s a better and more appealing choice for voters.
“Clean elections” schemes also introduce excessive government interference in campaigns. Bureaucrats apply formulas to determine precisely the “right” amount of money that should be spent on a campaign. Arizona’s law details how candidates should account for the value of riding to a campaign event in a supporter’s car. Connecticut’s 49-person campaign regulatory agency reviews the legality of one candidate’s website linking to another’s; whether a person who puts a lawn sign on her business’s property makes an illegal corporate contribution; and the value of that sign if a candidate recycled it from a previous campaign.
“Clean elections” laws fail to achieve their other stated goals of increasing competition and participation, reducing the amount of money spent on campaigns, or elevating their tone. It should come as no surprise that Connecticut’s election law written by incumbents has not made incumbents more vulnerable to defeat, though it does relieve office holders of most of the time consuming and distasteful work of political fundraising. Rather, these Incumbent Protection Acts reduce the likelihood of a challenger out-spending an incumbent, making it harder for new candidates to overcome incumbent advantages in name recognition and existing relationships.
These laws also create incentives for gaming the system. In Arizona, straw candidacies and team tactics have been abused to trigger additional funds for favored players. Interest groups run unhelpful ads purporting to support a candidate for doing something unpopular so more money will go to the candidate they really want to help. In Connecticut, candidates in districts dominated by one party who used to spend small amounts to get elected now find themselves awash in public funds they don’t need, but find a way to spend.
In Davis and Citizens United, the court took important steps to re-establish political free speech rights. On March 28, the court has the opportunity to limit the government’s ability to select election winners and losers, leaving such decisions to the voters, where they belong.