DAN NEAL

Perspective

The 2008 elections are a year away, yet the "wealth primary" is in full force. Every day, there are new reports of political candidates raising campaign money hand over fist from large donors. It's accepted wisdom that whoever wins this money chase will most likely win the official race next November, leaving ordinary voters out of the decision.

Where there is money there is also often scandal. We saw this in Wyoming recently when newspapers reported that since winning re-election in 2002, Republican Sen. Mike Enzi had used his campaign funds to pay his daughter-in-law more than $150,000 for fundraising services. He also used funds from his leadership PAC, Making Business Excel, to pay her company an additional $170,000. While it's not illegal for senators to use campaign funds to pay family members, such payments figured in the scandals surrounding former Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif.

Because of these sorts of revelations, there is a cry for change. This week, thousands of activists throughout the nation are rallying to voice their support for Fair Elections legislation that would bring full public financing of election to the U.S. Senate.

These activities, all part of Fair Elections Action Week (http://www.fairelectionsnow.org) will educate the public and send a signal to elected officials that Americans are ready to change the way elections are run in this country. Government ethics and corruption is listed as the top issue for voters in the next Congressional elections, according to Rasmussen Reports. Fair Elections provides a practical, proven way to put elections in the hands of voters, not big campaign donors. A broad coalition of grassroots groups, from the consumer to environmental to the civil rights communities, support these efforts.

The Fair Elections Now Act, introduced in March by Sen. Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn., is modeled on successful systems in place in Maine and Arizona. Companion legislation is expected to be introduced in the House soon. Under this system candidates are able to receive a public grant to run their campaigns after collecting a set number of small qualifying contributions, five dollars, from their state. Once qualified, candidates must adhere to strict spending limits and forego all private fundraising.

Nationwide, seven states and two cities have Clean Elections programs in place for all or some of their elections: Arizona, Connecticut, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Vermont, as well as Albuquerque, N.M., and Portland, Ore. In Maine, 84 percent of the state legislature is made of elected officials who ran and won under this system. In Arizona, nine out of 11 statewide officials - including Gov. Janet Napolitano - ran and won under Clean Elections. And in the first test of the new Clean Elections program in Connecticut, both candidates for a special election in October participated in the system.

Candidates who run with Clean Elections can spend their time concentrating on voters rather than fundraising. As a result, a more diverse group of people are running. Small business owners, teachers, social workers - all have run and won using Clean Elections. In fact, many women, African American, and Latino candidates have said that had it not been for Clean Elections they would not have run for elected office.

Public financing systems also enhance the role that small donors play in elections. In Arizona, where Clean Elections has been available to candidates since 2000, small donors play a large role in influencing campaigns. The number of donors to gubernatorial campaigns increased more than three-fold from 1998, when elections were privately financed, to 2002, when the public financing option was available. The $5 qualifying contributions collected by gubernatorial candidates in 2002 came from a more geographic and economically diverse group of donors than did the private contributions raised by candidates who did not participate in the Clean Elections program.

Sens. Durbin's and Specter's Fair Elections Now Act would bring this type of system to federal elections, leveling the playing field for Senate candidates. A House bill will do the same for House candidates. This week, nearly a year before voters will choose their candidates only after all the big donors have already made their voices heard, is the time to start thinking about what could be different come 2010. There is a practical, proven way to make elections about voters, not big campaign donors, and it's called Fair Elections.

Dan Neal of Casper is executive director of the Equality State Policy Center.