For far too long, incumbents and prolific fundraisers have held an overwhelming advantage in any election. Grassroots candidates usually don't stand much of a chance, as they don't get to use the trappings of office to spread their messages for free, and they usually don't have the money to wage a viable campaign. Money is playing an increasingly important role in politics today.

We need a Clean Elections bill or publicly funded elections that will level the playing field for qualified candidates to run for office without having to worry about wealth or political connections.

Clean Elections are about we the voters not the big campaign donors. Lets force candidates to spend their time talking about the issues and not waste time dialing for dollars.

Clean Elections started in Maine, in 1996, since then, six other states and two cities have joined Maine on the Clean Elections roster, and helped to spread the word about ending pay-to-play politics, and making elections about voters – not big money donors.

With Clean Elections suddenly we will have more people with more diverse backgrounds running and winning. In 2006 there were more than 200 Clean Elections candidates in Arizona, Maine and North Carolina elected to serve in legislative, judicial and statewide offices.

It came as a shock to me to hear that the 2006 elections cost approximately $2,800,000,000. This was the most expensive mid-term election in history. And it’s only going to get worse.

Let’s cut the link between candidates and insider lobbyists who don’t provide the massive amounts out of the kindness of their hearts, they expect that “their” candidates once in office, that politician feels obligated to protect the interests of the groups that put him there and undoubtedly loses sight of the constituents.

Clean Election candidates are free from this pressure; they will do their jobs without regard to who paid for their campaign. They will work for us the voters, not Big Money, Big Business, and Big Drugs etc.

Nearly a fourth of Congress is now supporting Clean Elections, 109 to be exact at most recent count.

When we Americans went to the polls last November, corruption was much on our minds, 41% of those surveyed in exit polls by AP, CNN, and the four major television networks said that this more than any other issue was “extremely important”.

According to non-partisan research, 75 percent of voters support clean elections, and only 16 percent oppose it, indicating that American voters seem to be ready for a public financing system. Americans tend to be keenly aware of the influence that big money has on getting individuals elected, and they don't like it.

Rumor has it that Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL) has announced his intention to introduce a Clean Elections bill in Congress very soon. Sometime in March (this month) is what I heard. Representative John Tierney of Massachusetts will introduce the bill in the House.

We saw what happened in the Supreme Court Justice race here in Illinois a couple years ago. Perhaps Illinois needs a pilot program to fund Supreme and Appeals Court Judges, as a kind of test case for a statewide referendum such as those that are now law in Maine, Arizona and North Carolina.

Someone suggested an alternative in by making the public's airwaves available for the public purpose of campaigns.

There will have to be some public moneys involved, but the most essential (also the cheapest, entirely constitutional element) to campaign finance is the right of public use the airwaves.

The great thing is that there are hard numbers available as to how many voters broadcast media outlets reach; these can be corresponded directly to the number of signatures that a candidate would have to obtain to qualify for free airtime.

The only problem I see here is that immediately you have a conflict between Big Media and the grassroots, while the conflict will always be there, given the environment in Washington, I don’t see this alternative working.

Who is most likely to benefit by having most candidates "run clean?" Us--anyone in the grassroots who cares most about good public policy, anyone who has been involved in a public interest campaign that has bumped up against or been crushed by big-money "special interests."

Please contact your legislators and tell them the time for passing the comprehensive clean elections bill is now.

What do we want? Clean elections! When do we want them? NOW!

Ron McBride
ron@wedemocrats.org