Does Public Financing of Campaigns Increase Legislative Effectiveness Among State Legislators?

Scholars have analyzed the effect of public funding of campaigns on many aspects of U.S. politics, particularly in the context of U.S. state legislatures. One important yet unanswered question is whether public financing, in freeing state lawmakers from the time demands of fundraising, enhances their effectiveness as legislators. Using Bucchianeri, Volden, and Wiseman’s recently introduced measure of legislative effectiveness for state lawmakers (State Legislative Effectiveness Score), we investigate the impact of public funding on state lawmaker legislative effectiveness in the three states that offer full public funding to state legislative candidates: Arizona, Connecticut, and Maine. Accounting for the fact that legislators’ decision to take public financing is not random, we find some evidence that state legislators who rely on public funding to finance their campaigns are more effective lawmakers than those who rely on private funding. Notably, however, the effect of public funding on legislative effectiveness is relatively modest compared with other factors that typically influence legislative effectiveness—for example, serving as a committee chair. Although we cannot conclude with confidence that the influence of public funding on legislative effectiveness differs between the two parties, we do find that public funding appears to influence legislative effectiveness differently within each party. Our findings should be of interest not only to scholars but also to policy makers aiming to enhance the legislative effectiveness of state lawmakers by reducing the time they spend fundraising.