Florida Senate Appropriations Chairman Jack Latvala was quick to respond this week to House Speaker Richard Corcoran’s call to abolish public financing for statewide elections. Corcoran, R-Land O’Lakes, wants the Constitution Revision Commission to place a measure on the 2018 general election ballot that would eliminate the financing system, which offers to candidates matching state funds for individual contributions up to $250. Under the system, candidates also pledge to cap their overall expenditures. Corcoran, who is considering a run for governor, called the system “welfare for politicians,” noting that more than $10 million in public funding supported candidates running for governor and the three state Cabinet seats in the 2010 and 2014 elections. But Latvala, a Clearwater Republican who is an announced candidate for governor and might use public financing in his campaign, said it is a non-issue in a race that should focus on the bigger problems facing the nation’s third-largest state.
“No citizen ever mentioned public financing as (an) issue” Latvala tweeted. “Many ARE concerned about opioids, schools falling apart, water quality.”
… Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, a Democratic candidate for governor who might use public financing, also said Corcoran’s initiative “missed the mark.”
“Not only was this exact measure already rejected by the voters in 2010, it fails to address the real problems with campaign finance here in Florida and post-Citizens United,” Gillum said, referring to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that unleashed more corporate financing of elections.
Full Article: Corcoran gets push-back on public campaign finance repeal.