Yesterday I had the opportunity to talk with one of the organizers at the forefront of the work to win full public financing of elections in North Carolina. Organizing Director Adam Sotak has been with Democracy North Carolina since 2000, and talked with me about the history of the work in North Carolina, and what 2007 has in store.

What’s your background as an organizer? What drew you to this kind of work?

I got my bachelor’s degree in social work in 1996. After that I went to work at wilderness camp for adjudicated boys, which satisfied my need to do something good in the world; and not be sitting a desk all day. Then I started to think about doing work that dealt with the bigger picture, a more “macro” way of changing communities. I completed my Masters in Social Work and got more involved in political reform and labor issues and did the AFL CIO Organizing Institute apprenticeship program, which meant heading to the DC area for several months to work with a parking workers union. After that, I came back to NC to pursue my long-standing interest in political reform and changing the system. A friend of mine was organizing with Democracy South, and I joined up in January of 2000. In 2003, Democracy North Carolina was formed as a spin-off from Democracy South.

Talk a little about what Democracy North Carolina does.

Our mission is broad: to uphold the principle of one person; one vote. Clean Elections has been a major part of our work, as has our research work, directed by Bob Hall. We organize people around public financing, same day voter registration, instant run-off voting, ex-felon re-enfranchisement; get-out-the-vote activities, and general voter education.

Give us a brief history of public financing of elections in North Carolina.

It all started in the early 1990s with the North Carolina Money in Politics party; through the 90s Bob Hall and our former director Pete McDowell along with others now involved with Public Campaign (like David Donnelly) started looking at how to produce public financing at the state level. Bills for Clean Elections in North Carolina started getting filed in 1995, and 1996. In 1999 started getting more financial support, we expanded our staff and intensified our organizing. In 2002, we passed public financing for judicial races, the Judicial Campaign Reform Act. Since them we’ve worked to implement the judicial program and to expand public financing to more races (like Council of State race). We’ve been fortunate to have the support of the major North Carolina newspapers for our public financing efforts.

What’s cooking for 2007?

We’re focusing on winning full public financing of Council of State races – that’s eight positions all told. Senate and House bills are going to be filed soon; and we have strong sponsors lined up. The heads of state agencies usually have to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to run for office – and they raise it from people who have a vested interest in the business of the agencies in question, so it’s a conflict of interest. Winning public financing for these races will be a great next step.

Lots of states are now looking at public financing of judicial races – what role has NC played being an early adopter of the system?

We’ve been a leader in that sense. Numbers don’t lie: if you look at the statistics from our judicial public financing program, people using it and it works smoothly. It’s a good program and now other states are looking at North Carolina and thinking it could work other places, like GA, IL,MI, MT, NM, OR, WI, WA, and NY. The next test is to see whether a win for judicial public financing can lead to a win for public financing of legislative races.

What tools/activities/strategies have proved most valuable for Democracy North Carolina in advancing this work?

It takes a variety of tactics; one of the great ones has been our research and the media coverage we get from that research that fuels organizing. Another has been local legislator/constituent meetings; bringing 8 or 10 people together in a room to talk through the issue. We’ve also had success in engaging civic leader types; like organizing1400 attorneys in favor of judicial bill; or 2000 elected leaders to say the state should have publicly financed elections. Getting people with a vested interested on board with the system has been a golden tactic, because legislators listen to these people and it lends us credibility. Don’t assume opposition from people; because they might be big supporters after you have that conversation.


What are some suggestions for people who want to get involved in working for public financing of elections, but don’t quite know where to start?

You need to start by build relationships with lawmakers or legislators in your area. Then work towards building coalition wherever you can – get members in your own groups to get involved; like if you’re a League of Women Voters member, get your local chapter in support of public financing. Cultivate groups and individuals who can get involved. Give and take; show others you’re willing to support issues of concern to them if they give you support. In turn you get the relationships you need.


What can North Carolina residents look forward to in terms of opportunities to get involved in 2007?

The legislature is in session through summer so there will likely be opportunities to meet with legislator, and ask others to be in touch with their legislators. We hope to have more training calls and opportunities like we had earlier this year and there are other possibilities in the works like an legislative update call in late March that we’ll invite people to. If you’re interested in getting more involved, keep an eye out for emails in the next couple of months, and you can contact me by email at: adamsotak (at) democracy-nc.org.


Anything else people should keep an eye out for?

With the scandal surrounding former Speaker Black, we’ve had the opportunity to push a pilot project public financing bill for the legislature which is going to be introduced around the same time as the Council of State bill. There may also be local public financing bills on the table in Chapel Hill, and possibly in Carrboro where Democracy NC is headquartered. When those bills move forward we’re sure to see some local interests work to oppose them so we’ll have opportunities there. The other big thing we’re working to pass is same day voter registration. It’s looking pretty good so far, we have 57 cosponsors and need 60 votes to pass it.


You can keep up with the work of Democracy North Carolina at their website, and via email updates from Public Campaign Action Fund on the great work going on in North Carolina!