Credit Christopher Connelly/WYPR

There’s not much Republican gubernatorial hopeful Larry Hogan has in common with Del. HeatherMizeur, a Montgomery County progressive who lost a bid for the Democratic gubernatorial ticket this year. But the two were the first candidates in 20 years to use Maryland’s public campaign financing program and, unless the legislature moves to re-fund it, they may be the state’s last gubernatorial candidates to rely on public money.

Jared DeMarinis from the State Board of Elections says there’s only about $1 million left in the Fair Campaign Finance Fund after Mizeur and Hogan tapped the public fund for just over $4 million.

“At a million dollars we will not have enough to fully fund a primary candidate in four years or at any point in the near future, let alone a general election candidate,” Demarinis said.

Unless the General Assembly acts, there’s no chance the fund will be re-upped. For decades, Marylanders could check a box to send a portion of their tax return to fund campaigns. But in 2010, lawmakers decided to drop the check box because no one was using the account. Republican Ellen Sauerbrey was the first and the last to use public funds in 1994, so many law makers saw little reason to keep money moving into the account.

Del. Eric Luedke, a Montgomery County Democrat, introduced legislation last year to re-instate the box, but his bill died amid resistance from environmentalists who get money from tax form checkoffs. He says that public financing is the only way to ensure everyone has a fair chance to run for office.

“For people who aren’t well-connected, who don’t have personal money, who don’t know people who are wealthy, we have a system that means that they don’t have a shot,” Luedtke says. “And that’s not democracy.”

Under the current system, only gubernatorial candidates can take public financing. Counties are allowed to set up their own public funding mechanisms for council races, and Montgomery County is working on that. The county council is expected to vote on the measure next week. Luedtke says he also wants to see the state’s public financing program expanded to include legislative races.

“There are districts in Montgomery County where it takes $100,000 to $200,000. That’s absurd,” he says.

But it’ll take more than a check box to pay for all those races. And Anne Arundel Del. Ron George, a proponent of public financing who lost a bid for the Republican gubernatorial ticket, says public financing should not become another tax.

“I support it as long as it’s voluntary,” George says. “If people want to donate a portion of what they would have gotten back, I support it, because it’s not taking it out of their tax dollars.”

Still, George says public financing is not just fair, but may make races more competitive and therefore incumbents less complacent.

“I can tell you about many legislators here…who didn't do much for four years and suddenly when they had a close race and they won by a little bit,” he says. “And wow did they get busy.”

Heather Mizeur got more than $750,000* in public money for her primary run, which she says helped her spread her message. But she was vastly outspent in the democratic gubernatorial primary and, because the funding comes late in the primary season, could not buy ads until just before the election. Now, she says, it’s time to rethink public finance.

“We dusted off a system that hadn’t been used in 20 years,” the Takoma Park delegate says. “It needs to be updated.”

Mizeur says opening the program to all state races is vital – and she thinks a fee derived from court settlements should pay for it. But, she says, it’ll take time. “As is the case often in politics you have to crawl before you walk before you run. At a minimum we need to fix this for gubernatorial elections,” she says.

With Mizeur and Ron George both out of the legislature at the end of the year, it’ll likely fall to Eric Luedtke to introduce that baby step when lawmakers return to Annapolis in January.

*Editor's Note: This report, and the story that aired on Sept. 16, incorrectly stated that Del. Mizeur received about $250,000 in public matching funds during her primary campaign. In fact, she received more than $750 million. The text article has been updated to reflect the accurate figures.

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