Washington Post: Death of Public Financing

This should come as no surprise to anybody who has followed fundraising trends over the past few election cycles. What is more important than the effect this has on candidates in 2008, is what motivation this will give to public financing advocates on both sides of the aisle. Of course candidates will give lip service to being in favor of reform, especially Democrats, but real change will come when state party officials, candidates for state office, and grassroots organizers start cooperating to change laws at the state level. Only once officials are involved in publicly financed elections, they may start to agree to changing the system for bigger elections, the ones that put them in holding offices to which they aspire.

This change will have to come from the bottom, so it is no surprise that those at the top of politics are not taking the lead, but instead are giving tacit assent to the halting of progress. Citizens, excluding the politicians and fundraisers, need to make his change happen for ourselves.