Perdue priority is now on hold

RALEIGH

During her run for governor last year, Bev Perdue often talked about the need for campaign-finance reform.

She said that the state needs to find an alternative to the current system, in which candidates for the state's top offices raise many millions of dollars through private contributions.

Perdue even made the issue the subject of her first official act as governor. On Jan. 13, the new governor issued her first executive order. It established a task force charged with setting up an endowment that would be used to finance future governor campaigns.

But seven months later, that task force has not been appointed, and there has been virtually no work done on the proposed endowment, which is an extremely ambitious and untested idea.

A spokeswoman for Perdue said that the governor remains committed to the goal of campaign-finance reform. But the economic recession makes it difficult to try to build a large endowment right now, the spokeswoman said. And Perdue has devoted most of her attention so far to the immediate task of balancing the state budget.

"Given the economic challenges we are currently facing, it is difficult to put a timeline on the creation of the endowment," the spokeswoman, Chrissy Pearson, said in an e-mail. "Those who would financially support the endowment are struggling with the same economic downturn that has afflicted all of North Carolina and the country."

Major campaign-finance reform will be difficult to achieve, especially in governor campaigns, which are traditionally the most expensive statewide races. On the way to winning the governorship last year, Perdue raised or borrowed more than $18 million.

To replace the need for all that fundraising, Perdue wants to establish an endowment fund, which theoretically would be financed by donations from philanthropists, corporations and others.

Future candidates for governor would get money from the endowment to run their campaigns, as long as they promised to run positive campaigns.

It's unclear how "positive" would be defined, or what the consequences would be if a candidate receiving endowment money began running negative ads.

Executive Order No. 1, which Perdue issued just two days after her inauguration as governor, outlines the proposal and named Tom Lambeth of Winston-Salem to lead a special task force to establish the endowment.

Lambeth, the former head of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, said that he has had a few informal conversations with people interested in campaign-finance reform.

But little has been done beyond that. Perdue is responsible for appointing the members of the task force, and she has not yet made any of those appointments.

Lambeth said he believes that it was a wise decision for the governor to delay the start of the task force so that she could focus on the state's recession-fueled budget gap.

"In the beginning, there were folks who had questioned whether or not this was simply a campaign statement or whatever, but I am convinced of her conviction that something ought to be done" on campaign-finance reform, Lambeth said.

He added that trying to solicit donations for a new endowment would be difficult during a recession.

No one knows whether enough money could be raised through donations to finance an endowment sufficiently large enough to pay for robust governor campaigns.

Perdue said during her campaign that her long-term target for the endowment fund would be $50 million.

The endowment idea differs from other campaign-reform efforts in North Carolina, which have focused mainly on public financing.

A new public-financing program took effect last year and was available to candidates for state insurance commission, state auditor, and state superintendent of public instruction. A bill in the General Assembly seeks to expand the program to the state treasurer.

According to some reform advocates, the advantage of a true public-financing system is that the state could designate a reliable revenue stream, with the money being distributed to candidates who meet certain thresholds.

An endowment financed through donations could be a less reliable source of cash.

"The risk is that the endowment may not accumulate enough money," said Bob Hall, a veteran advocate for campaign reform and the executive director of Democracy North Carolina.

Still, Hall said that he sees the public-financing effort and Perdue's proposal as complementing each other. Both are aimed at giving candidates a way to finance their campaigns other than soliciting donations from interest groups. "They're going to rely on special interests and wealthy donors unless we the public create an alternative," Hall said.

■ James Romoser can be reached at 919-210-6794 or at jromoser@wsjournal.com