WV elections panel declines to clean up public campaign law

In May, the commission drafted rules to make the public financing law consistent with the new nonpartisan election and had proposed resolving the funding ambiguity with a rule clarifying that candidates could keep any unspent qualifying funds.

However, that proposal drew objections from West Virginia Citizens For Clean Elections, which argued that the authors of the law had intended for unspent funds to go back into the public financing pot.

“It was our understanding that, after the election, any unspent funds would go back into the clean elections fund, regardless of the source,” Julie Archer, representing the coalition, told the commission.

-The Charleston Gazette-Mail, July 30,2015