How About If We Did This (Election Financing Idea):

[Dinger]

For the primary election, each presidential candidate gets 10 million dollars. The, there is a 3-day (Fri-Sat-Sun) primary, which will include all states. No debates during the primary - too many candidates imo). Primary debates are a joke (imo).


For the general election, each candidate gets 100 million dollars. How they get this is up to them, but that is all that can be spent, period. Same idea for the primary. Debates will include Democratic, republican, and Independent party candidates.
There will be 3 debates, and each candidate gets one moderator of their choosing.

Oh well, guess I'll see where this goes.

[gateley]

1. I have a problem with this:

For the general election, each candidate gets 100 million dollars. How they get this is up to them,/b]

That leaves it open for big corporate donations, which is one of the things we're trying to avoid with public financing (if I understand you correctly).

[Dinger]

2. I Need Ideas For That Part

I guess my main point was for everyone to have the same amount. I didn't mean that any way they got the $ was o.k.
I don't know enough about campaign financing to come up with a good idea. I would just like everyone to have the same resources. How they get it? Not sure about that part. I need to know more.

[cali]

3. no bad ideas.

we need rotating small states to come first and then a Super Tuesday affair. Public funding should be mandatory but we've got Constitutional hurdles. And debates among primary contenders are a good idea- they just need to be revamped. We need more debate not less.

[LWolf]

4. I see some problems.

How about this:

In the primary, each candidate gets 10 million dollars from public funds, and not a penny more than that can be spent, including by outside groups.

All polling will be illegal.

The primary lasts 6 months, and it doesn't matter who goes first. It doesn't matter because all voting will be done by mail, and there will be ONE vote counting date after the last primary. No ballot is opened before that day, ample time is provided to conduct an ethical, accurate vote, and no vote counts are announced until the last count is official. Then they are all announced at the same time.

There are ample, abundant debates. In these debates, questions are constructed by citizen groups, not media heads, moderators are pulled from local citizen or democratic groups, and every candidate is asked every question, and given an equal amount of time to respond. No one candidate gets more talking time, or different questions, than another. Perhaps each of the debates could be centered on only one issue, to allow for a more substantive discussion of each issue.

In the general election, each candidate can again have $10 million, again from public coffers with no private donations allowed, and not a penny more.

Again, all polling will be illegal.

Again, multiple debates based on the above format, to include all 3rd party and independent candidates as well as the R and D.

Again, all ballots will be mailed in, and the count will start at the same time, as above. Again, no results will be announced until the last ballot is verified and counted, and all official counts are done.

For the primaries, the GE, and every other damned day of every year: a fairness doctrine that keeps mass media neutral.

The only real question here is this:

What is the most effective process of narrowing the candidates who can qualify to be on the primary ballot down, without allowing outside money into the process?

[harmonicon]

5. it's certainly a start

I don't think there should even be a possibility of donations to a political campaign though - every candidate who qualifies should get slice of the pie from taxes to pay for this. Then things like endorsements would mean something. There should also be some sort of rule about equal media time for the candidates, including in any and all debates. I do think that primary debates are a good idea though - it's just that the way most of these ones have been run is complete crap.

I do think elections should possibly be on holidays/weekends, or the polls could be open for a week, with results announced at the end of that week. I also think all states should have a uniform voting process for the primaries involving an instant runoff ballot. Some people have suggested the idea that primaries could be done regionally with 3 - 5 regions of the US at different times. That may not be a bad idea, because it could focus campaigns/parties to put their energy into different states in different election cycles.

For the GE, perhaps anyone who is on the ballot in ALL states should be on national televised Debates, in part because if we want lots of people to watch, it's better that the debate is applicable to all viewers.

Also, the primaries should be an awful lot closer to the general election - this endless campaigning is maddening!

[whatdoyouthink]

6. Well

Each State should be in rotation as witch one is first! 2-4 on same day!
Then rest by region (IE: N/S/E/ & W) over a period of a mo or two maybe followed by 2-4 "Last State's" (IE: maybe used for tie breaker or a close one / etc)

Want it Shorter - but fair for us to choose one and fair chance for every State to be in rotation...

Limit the amount sounds good - so big money wont be the "Decider"