This election season Chapel Hill experimented with public campaign financing for mayor and Town Council races - and the early returns are encouraging. The only two candidates who opted for the public money, and the spending limits that accompanied it, came up winners. One, Penny Rich, finished first among the council contenders. The other, incumbent council member Mark Kleinschmidt, edged out bigger-spending, privately funded Matt Czajkowski in the mayor's race.
Municipal races in Chapel Hill aren't ordinarily a hotbed of big spending or tainted money. Still, Town Council members voted last year to give "clean elections" a try on the municipal level, a first in the state. They reasoned that eliminating the need to raise campaign funds (beyond an initial $750-plus in small contributions) might help candidates focus on the issues and attract outsiders to the race.
The latter didn't happen (and some incumbent council members were reluctant to sign up for funds they'd voted to provide) but the town had a good, vigorous and clean election. Let the experiment proceed.
