Campaign Finance Reform Project

The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law is a nonpartisan public policy and law institute that focuses on fundamental issues of democracy and justice. Recently, the organization has focused on public financing of political campaigns and completed an empirical analysis of electoral competition and low contribution limits. To build on this research, The Brennan Center proposed to study the impact of public financing on the competitiveness of elections, contestedness of elections and diversity of candidates in the states and municipalities that have adopted such systems. In response to the request, the Brennan Center Capstone team examined the impact of public financing on key factors in gubernatorial, state senate and state house/ assembly races.