I'm cross posting a piece here on small donors, which I worked with our president Bob Edgar to put together, looking at the trends in small donor giving this cycle for presidential and congressional candidates -- the two are very different -- and how that impacts our work to limit big money's role and engage more people in our political system.

Check it out below the fold.

We've seen a lot of coverage of the public financing/campaign finance debate recently.  The main drive has been from the Obama-McCain will they/won't they grist mill and the small donor "revolution" theory.  Our colleague at the Brennan Center, Laura MacCleery posted a great blog on Huffington Post today about these issues:

I very much agree.  Small donors are good for democracy, it's a sign of ordinary people participating in the system, and these people are likely to get more involved in the grassroots.  Just as politicians who raise money in the current system are not bad people (the vast majority are excellent people and in politics for the common good), people are generally good and are giving small donations with noble motivations.  The problem is, the system is still broken.  Money still buys power.  Most people don't have money.  Most people don't and can't give money.