After an uphill battle throughout this legislative session, the bill for public financing finally came up for a vote on the Senate floor last Friday afternoon. In a 23-24 vote the Senate rejected SB 546 - a result that was encouragingly close, yet also immensely disappointing.

In the end it came down to one vote. What is especially frustrating about the closeness of the vote was losing a co-sponsor at the last minute when Sen. Currie folded under pressure from the ever-powerful Senate President Mike Miller.

While much has been said (in my own posts and by others) about the role Miller and Currie had in killing the bill, it looks like the real enemy of the legislation was Sen. Bobby Zirkin. As a Delegate, Zirkin voted for the bill, but apparently now he's changed his tune.

A recent editorial in the Baltimore Sun draws attention to the need to reform Maryland's state campaign finance laws. The editorial calls for change, and enthusiastically supports the much-needed clean elections legislation currently pending in Annapolis as a remedy for our flawed campaign financing system.

It is a discouraging reality that the interests of wealthy lobbyists and corporations - whose donations our politicians so depend on to conduct their campaigns - often take precedence over the interests of the constituents these politicians are supposed to represent.

The editorial's support of clean elections should be applauded, but its claim that such a system "wouldn't be cheap" is misleading. The Sun fails to mention that the funds needed to publicly finance campaigns would in fact save the state money by getting rid of the tax loopholes and specialized projects that are commonly traded by candidates in exchange for campaign donations.