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9. In 1972, Dade County established the “Dade Judicial Trust Fund” for all Dade County judicial elections. The trust was blind, the funds were solicited from all practicing members of the bar in Dade County, and the funds were distributed on a pro rata basis to each “qualified” judicial candidate in the county. The trust failed soon after it was adopted due to (i) a lack of attorney participation (donations), and (ii) criticism that the fund distributed funds to all qualified judicial candidates, thereby disallowing attorneys from directing contributions to particular candidates. In 1972 the fund received just over $30,000 from three hundred attorneys. In 1974 the fund received just over $61,000, and was disbanded shortly thereafter. See Roy A. Schotland, “Elective Judges’ Campaign Financing: Are State Judges’ Robes the Emperor’s Clothes of American Democracy?” Journal of Law and Politics 2 (1985): 57, 124, 100–104 (admitting that “[d]espite having begun this project enthusiastic about non-disclosure of lawyers’ giving as a reform measure, after considering these factors, I find it neither worth doing nor doable”). See also Leona C. Smoler and Mary A. Stokinger, “Note: The Ethical Dilemma of Campaigning for Judicial Office: A Proposed Solution,” Fordham Urban Law Journal 14 (1986): 353, 364.

Chapter 16. Reforms That Would Reform

1. Brooks, Corruption in American Politics and Life, 228.

2. For a review of these different reforms, see U.S. Gov’t Accountability Office, “GAO-10-390, Campaign Finance Reform: Experiences of Two States That Offered Full Public Funding for Political Candidates” (2010), available at link #213 (supplemental report available at link #214); Michael G. Miller, “After the GAO Report: What Do We Know About Public Election Funding?” working paper (2010), available at link #215; Stevin M. Levin, “Keeping it Clean: Public Financing in American Elections,” Center for Governmental Studies (2006), available at link #216; Neil Malhorta, “The Impact of Public Financing on Electoral Competition: Evidence from Arizona and Maine,” State Politics and Policy Quarterly 8 (2008): 263–81; Peter L. Francia and Paul S. Herrnson, “The Impact of Public Finance Laws on Fundraising in State Legislative Elections,” American Political Research 31 (Sept. 2003): 5; Raymond La Raja, “Candidate Emergence in State Legislative Elections: Does Public Funding Make a Difference?” paper prepared for the Temple-IPA State Politics and Policy Conference (May 2008), available at link #217; Kenneth R. Mayer and Timothy Werner, “Public Election Funding, Competition, and Candidate Gender,” PS: Political Science and Politics XL, no. 4 (Oct. 2007), available at link #218; Thomas Stratmann, “The Effect of Public Financing on the Competitiveness of Elections,” George Mason University–Buchanan Center Political Economy, CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research) working papers series, May 7, 2009, available at link #219; Maine Comm’n on Gov. Ethics and Election Practices, “Maine Clean Election Act: Overview of Participation Rates and Payments, 2000–2008” (2008), available at link #220; Conn. State Elections Enforcement Comm’n, “The Status of the Citizens’ Election Fund as of December 31, 2009” (2009), available at link #221; Conn. State Elections Enforcement Comm’n, “Projected Levels of Candidate Participation and Public Grant Distribution for the 2010 Citizens’ Election Program,” available at link #222; and Kenneth R. Mayer and Timothy Werner, “Electoral Transitions in Connecticut: The Implementation of Clean Elections in 2008,” paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, available at link #223.

3. The leading scholarship examining campaign finance reform is varied and deep. Among the leading articles are Samuel Issacharoff and Pamela S. Karlan, “The Hydraulics of Campaign Finance Reform,” Texas Law Review 77 (1998): 1705; Lillian R. BeVier, “Money and Politics: A Perspective on the First Amendment and Campaign Finance Reform,