Our Public Financing Effort: What You Built, and Where We Go Next

This week, our Green Party campaign for Governor of Maryland is going to notify the State Board of Elections that we will transition out of Maryland’s Fair Campaign Financing Fund. It is clear that we won’t qualify by the August 3rd deadline, at which point we would need to transition out of the program anyway.

I want to thank all the people who donated to help us try and be the first small party to secure public financing in Maryland. I also want to thank all the people who supported the effort and encouraged us.

When we transition back into the traditional campaign finance entity, all of the restrictions on who we can take money from will go away by law, but the campaign is committed to not taking any money from PACs, LLCs, or corporations. That will continue no matter what we are allowed to do.

Results

Since we joined the public finance program in October, we received donations from 196 Maryland donors and received $10,889 in Maryland donations. Including out-of-state donors, we had 248 total donors and $15,682 in total donations.

Prior to entering the public finance program, our campaign had 175 donors, 600 donations, and $22,359.

That means entering July in the year of the election, we have 347 total donors, 1,012 donations, and $38,041 in total donations.

* Donor totals reflect unique donors in each time period. Some gave in both time periods and thus 347 is a reflection of total unique donors. 

While we will not qualify for public financing, we have already raised more money and have more donations than each of the third-party campaigns for governor since 2018. (These numbers exclude loans and in-kind contributions.)

It is not just the third-party candidates we compare favorably to; we are much closer to Dan Cox, the Republican nominee for Governor, than he is to Wes Moore, the Democratic nominee.

*Numbers here represent both Moore and Miller’s accounts. They are estimated because refunds, transfers, and returns constantly change totals over a very large campaign finance operation.

The reason we raise money is so that we can spend money promoting and spreading the message of the campaign, and letting people know they have a choice beyond the corruption of the two-party system.

During the time we were in the public financing program, the money we raised went to four primary places:

• Wages for workers
• Campaign materials to give to voters
• Event and booth fees
• Technology. 

Later this week I will provide more detail about our campaign activity so far this year, but the short version is we have been very busy! We have visited every part of the state, attended over a dozen festivals, fairs, and community gatherings, given out thousands of pieces of campaign information, and reached tens of thousands with our digital content. 

This work during this part of the year positions us very well for the general election, because it means all across the state people are becoming aware of our campaign! 

To qualify for public financing in the race for Governor, our campaign would have needed to secure at least 1,500 unique Maryland donors who contributed a minimum of $120,000. We accepted a $250 per-person limit. It was always a stretch goal, but I am glad we tried to qualify, even if we came up short.

What is Next

We will follow the existing per-person cap for campaign finance accounts in Maryland at $6,000. We thought about arbitrarily accepting a lower cap, but ultimately decided that this is a fight better taken up with policy at a later date.

Even though we did not qualify, I firmly believe that public financing is a key element of a Maryland model of multiparty democracy. I have some thoughts about how the program can be reformed to make it easier for candidates from small parties to qualify, but we will save that for after the election.

More information about our general election plans will be coming out later this month! 

Thank you for reading and please let me know if you have any questions.