Special Piper Fund Election Update - State Election Results Create Opportunities For Public Financing

Pro-Reform Majority in the New York State Senate: For the first time since 1964, Democrats won control of the New York State Senate. By the narrowest of margins, 32-30, there appears to be a pro-reform majority in the Senate . The State Assembly (House) passed a public financing bill last June. One NY advocate told me this morning that their hope is to try to win a new public financing bill in the legislature in early 2009 – making it one of the first acts of the new legislature. It is a bold plan – especially in view of the huge budget deficit New York faces. The effort to win reform was boosted on Monday when the apparent new Senate Majority leader, Malcolm Smith, told the NYTimes in an interview “he would move quickly to introduce legislation to publicly finance elections, despite the state’s fiscal crisis.”
Flipping the Assembly in Wisconsin: Democrats won 5 seats Tuesday to take control of the Wisconsin Assembly 52-46, plus an independent, who apparently will caucus with the Dems. The Senate kept its 18-15 Democratic majority. Judicial public financing now stands a good chance of passing in Wisconsin. Earlier this year, the senate passed judicial and many members of the new Assembly majority are on record in support of judicial. Mike McCabe of Wisconsin Democracy Campaign said this morning that he also believes that more comprehensive reform (legislature) is now on the legislative table for serious consideration, and that many members of the majority of both chambers have expressed support for it in the past.
North Carolina: Lt. Governor Beverly Purdue won a hard fought campaign for Governor. She supports public financing and NC advocates believe they can work with her to continue to win further public financing gains.
New Mexico: Three new state senators strongly committed to reform were elected to the New Mexico senate in key primaries in June. Tuesday, their ranks appear to have been joined by additional reformers, bringing the number of strongly committed reformers to 8-9 in the now 27 member Democratic Senate caucus. Without going into great detail now, this sets up a likely leadership fight among the Senate Democrats, where present Senate leadership has been the main obstacle to passing comprehensive reform in the state. How this unfolds in the next few weeks will decide how much in play New Mexico is for 2009 – but Tuesday was a solid step in the right direction.
Re-electing Washington’s Governor: Christine Gregoire, who won by a 133 vote margin in her 2004 race for Governor, appears to have won reelection with a solid 54-46 victory. Gregoire had tried to move a judicial public financing pilot program early in her first term – and with her re-election, advocates’ plans for a vigorous campaign to win judicial public financing have a solid chance of gaining traction in 2009.
New Hampshire: In 2006, Democrats took control of both houses of the state legislature for the first time since 1874. This year they retained control of both the 24 member senate and 400 member State House, which is likely necessary to have a chance of adopting any of the recommendations for implementing public financing in the state that the Blue Ribbon Commission on Public Financing will make to the legislature on December 1.