Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
Q&A
A commissioner inquires about the interplay between even-year elections and campaign finance
0:53:49
·
102 sec
A commissioner asks John Ketchum to elaborate on his point that higher turnout in even-year elections increases the "cost" for special interests, questioning if this implies a need for changes to the campaign finance system.
Ketchum clarifies he hasn't deeply analyzed the campaign finance implications but explains that when turnout doubles, interest groups need to reach far more voters to exert the same level of influence, making it more difficult compared to low-turnout primaries where mobilizing a smaller base can be decisive.
UNKNOWN
0:53:49
Yes.
0:53:50
Thank you.
0:53:51
You mentioned increasing the cost as a benefit in terms of reaching a broader audience.
0:54:01
I would ask in your written testimony or you could tell me if you thought about this, and I don't even know if this is our purview, but how does that connect or not with any looking at what the campaign finance system looks like now, do you think there would need to be changes there in order to to really effectuate the outcome you're talking about?
John Ketchum
0:54:32
Well, thank you for the question.
0:54:34
I have not thought specifically about the interaction of the campaign finance system.
0:54:37
I would be happy to explore that in my written testimony.
0:54:41
My point in in in, you know, looking at the way that interest groups influence local election is that it's a whole lot easier for them to have influence when only 20 or 25% of the populace is casting a a ballot.
0:54:55
And so it's, therefore, easy to get out the vote of, let's say, a membership organization.
0:55:02
Now that membership organization may not be representative of a district's voters as a whole or indeed of the citywide electorate, and therefore, we may have, representatives that are skewed in various ways relative to the median voter in a district.
0:55:19
And by doubling your voter turnout, for example, it's gonna be a whole lot harder for, that interest group to reach enough voters to have that same level of impact.