New York, NY – The fight for publicly financed elections and to protect fusion voting in New York State was bolstered by support from Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, who has submitted his recommendations to the Public Campaign Financing Commission. Dinowitz has been a long-time proponent of public financing in elections, joined an advocate rally outside his office this spring as campaign finance reform was being discussed by the state legislature, and endorsed a number of recommendations proposed by campaign finance reform advocates.

Dinowitz calls for a 6:1 match on small, in-district donations – a step further than many advocates have been asking for. Currently, most advocates are not asking for the public match to be restricted to only in-district contributions and the existing New York City system matches contributions made from throughout the city. In addition, he opposes the elimination of fusion voting.

“When people are voting for their representative, they should know that their interests are what will guide that candidate should they emerge victorious,” said Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz. “There are certainly some additional details that would have to be worked out, but I believe that we should do everything we can to encourage candidates to engage with the people of their district as much as possible.”

Dinowitz also introduces a new request to ban all contributions from outside New York State. Currently, statewide and state legislative candidates can accept political contributions from anywhere in the United States.

Assemblyman Dinowitz added, “Why should we let somebody who doesn’t even live in the state influence our elections? Our state and local elections should be decided by New Yorkers alone. Speaking from my own perspective, I would much rather focus on what people in my district and my state care about than what people in other states are saying.”

A common criticism of public financing has been that implementing contribution and expenditure limits offers more leverage to independent expenditures, exacerbated by the Citizens United decision from the Supreme Court of the United States. Assemblyman Dinowitz includes in his letter a request to address the issue of independent expenditures and their potential influence on public financing.

“Citizens United is one of the most devastating obstacles to fair elections that our country has ever faced,” continued Assemblyman Dinowitz. “While there are many independent expenditures that fight for things that I support and agree with, there are many more that are focused not on good policies but on accumulating power and money for themselves and their friends. It would be a disservice to the people of New York to allow a public campaign finance system to be undermined by the unfettered dark money from IE’s.”

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz concluded, “New York is on the precipice of enacting a significant change to our electoral system that could vastly improve access to the ballot for people of all backgrounds. Public financing has the potential to create fairer elections and state elected officials that reflect all of the people of New York – not the donor class. I hope the appointed commissioners do the right thing and create a fair, equitable, and effective public financing system.”