Another type of public financing is called clean elections. This election is funded mostly through public funds, but the candidate must first qualify for these funds. There are many ways to qualify and it depends on the election, but one way to qualify is to collect a certain amount of small contributions, and then follow spending limits. In Arizona they have clean elections, and for the gubernatorial race in order to qualify the candidate would have to collect 4000 contributions from different people of $5 [1]. If the candidate succeeds in doing this they no longer collect private contributions and they would receive around $700,000 for their primary and $1,000,000 for the actual election [1]. Other matching fund provisions exist as well. Take a look at the video posted below by the Institute for Justice, a libertarian interest group. Please keep in mind the idea of government funded elections directly conflicts with libertarians views wanting a smaller government. Also, notice in the video that the negatives the video states could be seen as positive as clean elections gives both candidates equal chance to raise money, incentivizes candidates to take public funds instead of private funds and ultimately reduces the amount of money in these clean election campaigns.
Sources:
[1] “Campaign Finance Reform: An Overview.” Campaign Finance: An Overview. National Conference of State, 3 Oct. 2011. Web. 3 Nov. 2013. <http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/campaign-finance-an-overview.aspx>.
Campaign Finance Reform 