ByJosh Zaharoff Posted on Mon Feb 26, 2007 at 12:13:10 PM EST
It's time for the Maryland Senate to take up and pass a public financing law. So says the Washington Post, in Sunday's edition, with a straightforward and timely editorial as a Maryland Senate committee approaches a vote on the bill:
The cost of a sensible public financing proposal for legislative races
(not statewide offices) is modest -- an estimated $28 million in the
course of a four-year election cycle. A bill before the General
Assembly is modeled on rules already working well in Maine and Arizona.
And public funding's advocates make the not implausible argument that
the scheme would pay for itself soon enough as lawmakers, less beholden
to special interests and corporate contributors, trimmed pork-barrel
spending and tax breaks for the favored few.
The Post editorial--which is subtitled, "Good government--at $28 million, it's a bargain"--notes that Senate President Mike Miller's past statements indicate his opposition to public financing of elections. The Post staff make a great case, but we'll turn to an even better spokesperson: Beth Edmonds, Maine Senate President, who is in her fourth term running under their "Clean Elections" system.
This same video was shown at the Maryland hearing on the bill last week; we hope Miller and others spend the minute and a half to watch and listen, then put this critical reform bill high up on the agenda for this session.
