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Kyle Chilton
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UVSC Student Proposes Election Reform
Utah Valley State College student Luke Peterson, a senior majoring in history, has drafted a proposal for publicly financed election campaigns that may be tested in the 2006 Salt Lake County Council elections. The plan is designed to decrease the influence of special interest groups on candidate platforms to restore public trust in county government.
“I feel it’s the best solution to the broken campaign finance system we have,” Peterson said. “You can keep tightening the screws on contribution limits but that will never solve the problem. The only way you can solve it is to lessen or eliminate the need for special interest money. Public financing is the only way to do that.”
Peterson, who is currently working as an intern at the Campaign Legal Center in Washington D.C., developed the ordinance while serving as the director of Utah Students for Clean Elections, an organization he created in June 2004. The group, made up of approximately 50 college students from around the state, proposed the plan to the Salt Lake County Ethics Advisory Panel in hopes of getting a pilot study in place for the 2006 election.
Under the plan, the county would match candidates dollar-for-dollar after they raise a certain amount through small donations received from grassroots efforts. Candidates would also have other guidelines, including limits on private money used for their campaign and how much of their own money they could spend.
Peterson hopes the plan will increase the number of people that would run for county offices. He feels that greater competition creates better representatives because the eventual winner will have to create a strong platform to defeat several competitors rather than just a few.
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