In Baltimore, special interest money has dominated funding for mayoral campaigns for too long.
According to an Oct. 20 Maryland PIRG Foundation report, 80% of the funds raised for 2020 Baltimore mayoral campaigns were raised by people and entities who weren’t even eligible to vote in the city’s elections. To combat this, voters passed a new small-donor financing program designed to benefit voters, candidates and Baltimore as whole. The new program will take effect for the 2024 elections.
“How electoral campaigns are financed matters,” said Rishi Shah, an advocate for Maryland PIRG. “Voters should be in the driver’s seat of our elections, not wealthy and corporate donors.”
“It’s my hope that the coming implementation of the Baltimore City Fair Election Fund, which was approved by voters in 2018, will reshape the political field in Baltimore City and allow for grassroots funded campaigns to have a better shot at winning elections,” Rishi added.
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Big Money Out
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