By Adam Pagnucco.
Council at-large candidate Scott Goldberg, who is using public campaign financing, has claimed to qualify for public matching funds.
Let’s explain how this works. Candidates in the county’s public financing program may qualify for public matching funds that are disbursed on a sliding scale related to their number of in-county contributors and the size of those contributions. But they don’t automatically get the matching funds. To qualify for them, they have to collect at least minimum thresholds of the number of in-county contributors and the amount of contributions they have collected. (Candidates in the program may only receive contributions from individuals up to a maximum level of $500.) For a council at-large candidate like Goldberg, the qualifying thresholds are 250 contributions from county residents of up to $250 each totaling at least $20,000. The State Board of Elections is responsible for certifying those totals from reports submitted by candidates and authorizing the expenditure of public matching funds from the county government. The distribution of matching funds may only begin 365 days before the primary election.
Qualifying for matching funds is an essential requirement for a publicly financed candidate to be elected. Without matching funds, it’s hard to run a competitive campaign. Goldberg appears to have hit these thresholds easily, which is unsurprising since he ran a competitive campaign for an at-large council seat in 2022.
So far, the publicly financed candidates who have claimed to qualify for matching funds are Evan Glass and Will Jawando (who are running for county executive) and Goldberg and Jeremiah Pope (who are running for council at-large). At this writing, none have actually been certified by the State Board of Elections, but since they are all veteran candidates, I would be surprised if they don’t qualify.
Goldberg’s press release is reprinted below.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: BeKind@VoteScott.org
GOLDBERG CAMPAIGN RAISES $150,000 WITH PUBLIC CAMPAIGN FINANCING
SILVER SPRING, MD – Scott Goldberg, Democratic candidate for Montgomery County Council At-Large, has raised $150,000, accounting for the Public Election Fund matching formula. In only 54 days since officially kicking off the campaign, the nearly 300 people who have contributed over $46,000 hard dollars far exceeds the amounts to qualify for public funds.
“People are on edge right now. The daily chaos of Trump, not knowing if you’ll have a job when you wake up in the morning, everything costing more, and seemingly weekly announcements that our school system is less than perfect, the residents of Montgomery County are looking for fresh thinking to solve problems,” said Scott Goldberg. “The solution is building more housing in balance with infrastructure, being a real partner with employers to create jobs and grow wages, and providing real oversight of MCPS.”
As a publicly financed campaign, donations from corporations, political action committees (PACs), unions, or anything other than a real human being are prohibited, and individual contributions are limited to a maximum of $500 per person.
To learn more about Scott Goldberg, visit VoteScott.org.
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