Groups seek to overturn NC public campaign financing law

By Tom Breen
Associated Press

RALEIGH — North Carolina's system of publicly-financed elections for judges and other office-holders is deeply flawed, a new lawsuit contends, and portions of it should be struck down to protect free speech rights.

A federal lawsuit filed on behalf of two political action committees that support anti-abortion candidates contends that a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision shows that North Carolina's system of public financing relies on unconstitutional favoritism in the form of matching funds. Under the law, candidates who participate in the public financing program get "rescue" funds when expenditures by privately financed opponents go above a certain amount.

"North Carolina's 'beggar thy neighbor' approach to free speech — burdening the speech of privately financed candidates and independent expenditure groups to increase the speech of others — is a concept 'wholly foreign to the First Amendment,'" the lawsuit states.