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Protest of money in elections

Here is a little extra perspective that I came across recently. I have been living and working a contract in New Zealand for the last couple of years. Have been there before for other contracts, and also have citizenship there. So I know the country reasonably well. Late last year they had their national elections. Their equivalent of say the US presidential elections, but with every seat in govt being contested, as well as choosing which govt will lead the country for the next 3 years. I get to vote, so of course follow the elections like I would in the US. After the election there was an article in the local news about how much all the individual parties spent on election expenses. There are 6 significant parties and a bunch of smaller ones, but like in the US the contest is mostly between the large liberal party and large conservative party. Anyway, I did a quick Google and compared the NZ campaign spending with US campaign spending.

In a short summary, what I found was that the spending of an average Senate campaign, just one parties candidate, would pay for the campaign spending of every candidate, for every party in the NZ national election. I wonder if that has anything to do with NZ being rated one of the top 2 or 3 least corrupt countries in the world while the US is buried deep down the list somewhere?
 
The US made an effort toward public financing of presidential campaigns. In 1966, it created an option to have $1 (which became $3 under Clinton) of your taxes fund the presidential campaigns. Taking the funds meant limits on the spending.

I'm not sure who all took the funds but I recall Carter and Reagan both doing so, for example. It was actually Obama who killed the custom, wanting to spend over the limit, I don't think top candidates have accepted the limit since.
 
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