The end of public campaign finance? Senate approves referendum to repeal standing law

Voters may soon decide whether to end a program providing matching state funds for candidates that agree to spending limits.

The Senate approved by a 28-11 vote a measure approving a ballot referendum asking voters to weigh in on repealing the Florida Election Campaign Financing Act (FECFA). Accessing that pot of money is one way that candidates who aren’t wealthy can get a leg up to make their cases to the voters.

Sen. Travis Hutson’s measure (SJR 1114) would, if passed, let voters this year decide in a referendum whether they want to end the provision that has been in effect since the Legislature passed it in 1986 — an era in which Florida and its campaign finance looked very different from the way they do today in some ways, but nonetheless saw some dynamics familiar to people of today.

Hutson is a scion of a land development family whose last reported personal net worth was north of $16 million.