[A] lieutenant governor candidate who is challenging the state’s public campaign finance law says he will go ahead and run even if his court case is unsuccessful.
Sen. David Zuckerman, who is seeking the Democratic nomination, is challenging a provision in Vermont’s public financing law that requires candidates to wait until February before they start their campaign, according to an intervention motion filed with the U.S. District Court in Burlington this month. He is joining a lawsuit previously filed.
“If the judge does not clarify these issues, I will have to go with a privately funded campaign,” said Zuckerman, who announced his bid on November 10 in breach of current public financing laws.
Zuckerman said he plans to send a letter out to supporters next week which will detail the location and time of his official campaign kickoff event in December.
Zuckerman’s decision to run was first announced on Twitter by Kathryn Blume, an environmental activist and Zuckerman friend. Zuckerman said at the time that Blume’s announcement could complicate his plans to run a publicly run campaign, though he said the rules were unclear.
Secretary of State Jim Condos said “it sounds to me like [Zuckerman] has announced that he is running, and that he would not qualify.”
State rules disqualify any candidate from receiving public money who “announces that he or she seeks an elected position as governor or lieutenant governor before February 15 of the general election year.”
Zuckerman, a Progressive/Democrat who serves Chittenden county, is running against a cohort of Democrats in the race for lieutenant governor — Burlington Rep. Kesha Ram, 29, and Brandon Riker, 28, of Marlboro, a relatively unknown candidate who has never held elected office. Dr. Louis Meyers, an independent, is also running.
Former gubernatorial candidate Randy Brock is the only Republican to have announced a bid for the post.
Zuckerman pointed to Riker’s fundraising totals –more than $100,000 as of June– as a reason why the current public financing rules were unfair. If Zuckerman gets his money from the state, he is only allowed to spend $50,000 in the primary, and $150,000 in the general election.
“Given the current candidates running, [public financing] would be a distinct disadvantage,” Zuckerman said. “It would be very difficult.”
Condos acknowledged the current public financing law, which was passed in 1998 and revised in 2014, does not reflect the current election atmosphere in the state. He said he believes the legislature should take a look at reforming the law, noting statewide elections are starting earlier and that more money is being raised.
“You’ve got more dark money coming in,” Condos said. “I expect that Vermont will see more money from outside the state in 2016 than we have ever seen.”
Zuckerman’s intervention motion, filed by his lawyer John Franco, joins the existing challenges to the expenditure and contribution limits of publicly financed campaigns as well as a party coordination ban that was filed by Franco on behalf of Dean Corren.
Corren, a publicly funded lieutenant gubernatorial candidate in 2014, was sued by Attorney General Bill Sorrell for allegedly asking the state Democratic Party to send an email to party supporters on behalf of his campaign, an alleged violation of the public campaign finance rules.
Corren sued Sorrell back, and said Monday “our case has highlighted a number of constitutional problems with the law. Zuckerman has gone after another one.”
Corren’s suit was filed last March, and no legal decision has been made regarding Corren’s action. He said he could not comment on exactly why the legal proceedings have lasted so many months, adding “we certainly expected it to be resolved long before now.”
Attorney General Sorrell noted there are restrictions involved in public financing, but also benefits as well, such as having “way more time to campaign on substantive issues” and having to spend less time dialing for dollars. He doesn’t believe the February start date is too late.
Eric Davis, a retired political science professor at Middlebury College, said the current restrictions on publicly financed candidates for governor are unfair, saying “if you take public financing as a gubernatorial candidate, you are, in effect, engaging in unilateral disarmament.”
He said the restrictions for the lieutenant governor’s race were unlikely to hurt candidates significantly, arguing the $200,000 cap “is enough to run a credible statewide campaign.”
Davis said he agreed that the February start date was somewhat problematic, adding that the legislature moved the 2016 primary date three weeks earlier to August.
“If the primary is three weeks earlier, the start date for public financing should be three weeks earlier, in January,” he said. “It should be the same amount of time as it used to be.”
